Who’s Responsible? A Lesson in S&OP Accountability

Demand Planners are often a scapegoat for failures outside of our control. While it’s easy to attribute blame to the forecast, problems such as poor customer service rates are often attributable to supply planning. In this article, I discuss methodologies to identify root causes of failings in the S&OP process. I reveal how forecast error exceeding control limits indicates a demand planning issue such problems relating to the statistical forecast, bias, or inputs, and how error lying within control limits indicates a supply planning issues, such as problems relating to lead time, safety stock, or logistics.