According to AMR Research, mature consumer goods companies with strategic sales and operations planning processes achieved a 2% to 5% improvement in revenue; a 20% increase in commercialization reliability; as well as a 15% to 20% reduction in inventory. These results designate S&OP process improvements as primary starting points for companies that desire to be more demand driven.
 
While experts may claim to provide a text book definition of S&OP, consumer goods companies may be better off determining the ideal implementation for their unique business situations. The overwhelming majority (80%) of consumer goods companies have a formal strategic S&OP process in place. Ownership of the process differs, with almost half falling under the auspices of supply chain as well as almost one third instituting a collaborative multi-discipline team. Interestingly, the supply chain is the process owner for almost all of the companies with more than $5 billion in revenue. Most consumer goods companies involve at least five organizations in the process, particularly sales, supply chain and marketing. More than three quarters also include finance, and that number may have increased recently…