S&OP, MRPII/ERP and Lean in the Rice Industry

Agribusiness in Australia can be a very challenging business environment given the harsh and varying climatic conditions that companies in Australia are required to handle.  From the high’s of a record crop size of 1.7 million tonnes, to the low’s of 300 000 tonnes and the worst drought in 100 years within a two year period.  These are some of the extremes that SunRice has had to manage in recent times, at the same time being able to achieve a record per tonne paddy return to growers.  How has SunRice been able to successfully and effectively manage the business to ensure the ongoing success of the company? (more…)

Re-Engineering Your Business Planning Through Sales & Operations Planning

By John Dougherty, Senior Partner Partners for Excellence

In a manufacturing or distribution company, bringing supply and demand in balance is a fundamental “law of nature” –it happens as a natural course of events, whether you want it or not. It’s only a matter of who will bring this balance about and when.

Too often, business companies don’t operate in just a “top down” approach. They start that way, but they constantly adjust and reconcile based on “bottom up” and “side in” input. The “bottom up” inputs are the tactical, short-term issues in manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing, technical development, and human resource planning. As things change, adjustments to the timing and mix of the overall plan must change, while holding to the original business objectives (sales, profits, market share, etc.) for the year in total. (more…)

Sales & Operations Planning – How do you rate?

Article from IT Magazine on S&OP and Lean

Without doubt two of the hottest business practices around at the moment are:

  • “Class A” Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and
  • Lean Manufacturing

A simple “yahoo” search reveals the enormous number of companies implementing S&OP and Lean, and the benefits they are actually obtaining.  There is even an S&OP specific “self-assessment” checklist for companies to do their own evaluation.  Let’s discuss Lean in a future article and focus on S&OP for this article. (more…)

S&OP FAQ by John Dougherty

How would you show the Production line on an S&OP supply & demand spreadsheet for a lean pull production line?

The title and definition of a production plan would not vary between a lean or not lean environment. A lean environment does not preclude making some product to stock. This is often called a supermarket. But in a pure make-to-order environment, when the finished product is never made without a customer order, the monthly production plan would be equal to the monthly sales plan. And its purpose is the same in the lean environment as in any other, that is to establish a rate at which a master schedule would be set to drive future material and resource requirements, that can be then communicated to the suppliers and manufacturing, so they can set up the resources in a way that will allow them to respond to a lean pull signal. (more…)

Japanese Style Execution vs. American Style Planning!

(Do Better Execution Methods Eliminate the Need for Planning?)

By John Dougherty

Planning!  That’s old fashioned!  “MRP, MRP II, they never worked well any way and you certainly don’t need them if you can execute (make and buy products) quicker and more reliably using World Class methods!”

This is a message you hear more and more often, and a lot of people listen.  Why?  Because not everyone was successful implementing planning tools, and even those who were have found that additional benefits can be gained from improving their method of execution. (more…)