Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a recent Aberdeen Group survey indicate that improving top line revenue in 2010 is the top pressure driving attention and resources toward S&OP initiatives. That's versus 45 percent of respondents in in a similar canvass a year ago. The findings are contained in "Sales and Operations Planning: Strategies for Managing Complexity within Global Supply Chains," and are based on a survey of 196 companies surveyed in June and July.
"S&OP is the key integrated process that the supply chain organization, specifically the chief supply chain officer, can use to achieve visibility and transformation across the entire organization and throughout the supply chain," said Nari Viswanathan, director of the Supply Chain Practice at Aberdeen Group.
The other key pressures that companies are facing with respect to S&OP processes include the need to reduce supply chain operating costs (53 percent) and the management of increasing demand volatility (49 percent), which creates the need for balancing these mutually exclusive business pressures. All of these pressures are competing against each other amidst an increased complexity of supply chain processes and the global nature of these supply chains.
"Given the highly outsourced and dynamic nature of today's integrated demand supply networks, those involved in the S&OP process must take a complete, end-to-end view of the supply chain and integrate that viewpoint throughout their organization. From the training programs to the actual management decisions, everything must be done with consideration to its effect on the entire supply chain," said Viswanathan.
