Creating an Effective Integrated Business Planning Process: Clif Bar’s Experience

S&OP is a great process to manage demand. In this article, the author shows how Clif Bar, producer of organic foods and drinks, implemented this process with great success. 18 Copyright © 2014 Journal of Business Forecasting | All Rights Reserved | Fall 2014 large multinational food companies wanted to acquire it, but Clif Bar made a brave and bold decision to remain independent, enabling it to develop and expand its innovative business model guided by the Five Aspirations, mentioned earlier. The word “Aspiration” was chosen with the thought that we’re on a journey, and can always do more in each of these areas. THE BEGINNING OF THE S&OP PROCESS As the business grew, so did the problems. To manage the enterprise more effectively, in 2012 Clif Bar decided to launch a formal S&OP process. A cross-functional project group was formed to assess, design, and implement a new S&OP process. The team met weekly, and began by documenting the current state. One of the main issues with the current state was the lack of a onenumber forecast, which was viewed as an opportunity to create a process that supported it. After creating the current state process map, the team spent one month ...