Eric is a predictive analytics and business planning innovator, author, teacher and speaker. As Director of Thought Leadership at IBF, he brings over 20 years of experience, previously leading demand planning at Escalade Sports, Berry Plastics, and Tempur Sealy. Eric is an IBF Advanced Certified Professional Forecaster (ACPF) and received IBF’s Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning award in 2016. He is a frequent speaker and panelist who has published extensively in The Journal of Business Forecasting and APICS Magazine. Eric is also the author of Cultural Cycles, Predictive Analytics for Business Forecasting & Planning, and Practical Guide to Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP/ IBP).
The S&OP process is over 30 years old. Since then, market dynamics have significantly changed but the process has not, meaning there are shortcomings that need to be addressed to reflect today’s reality. These include having inadequate mechanisms to effectively manage demand for new products; not having a strategy to replace well-established core products that are now rapidly fading away; not having a strategy to deal with ever-increasing Supply Chain disruptions; and failing to adapt to new channels of distribution like eCommerce. In this session, we will show what’s lacking in many S&OP processes, with practical takeaways to bring your S&OP up to date and turn it into a driver of efficiency and growth.
You will learn:
- Why and how to manage supply chain disruptions within the S&OP process
- How to optimize opportunities in the fast emerging eCommerce channel
- How to capitalize on new products with S&OP and why core products are fading away faster, and what to do about it