How can you gain the improvements of lean/S&OP planning without a fairly good forecasting input to the planning phase?
The better the the forecast, the better everything works. The worse the forecast, the more variability, and required flexibility, along with frequent fine-tuning and changing of sales and supply rates that will be required. S&OP by its very nature is a superior monitoring and management device that provides a monthly review of forecast accuracy, along with a discussion of the root causes and actions that should be taken to improve the planning accuracy in the future. In addition, supply plans, inventory hedges, and flexible adjustment of resources to support changes in plans should be reviewed and adjusted whenever necessary as part of the monthly S&OP cycle of monitoring performance, and rebalancing demand and supply plans.
