Introduction

Any good business will have a strategic plan, but few businesses can actually model or visualise it. Lack of alignment between supply chain planning and strategy is a difficulty that we consistently see, with no clear line of sight across the organisation. This leads to uninformed decision making, which relies on the expertise of a few individuals, rather than a resilient process supported by data. Particularly in this time of volatility, the ability to align through boardroom to shopfloor is what will set a business apart.

To maximise value creation, firms must be able to react quickly and suitably to reconcile plans, realign strategy and cover losses. Through the visualisation of plans companies can see the high-level impact of changes throughout the supply chain, simulate what-if scenarios at the click of a button, and determine the impact on the strategic goals of the business. SAC has numerous functions which can support the strategic planning process from inception to implementation.

Support from the tools in SAC empower business users to make intelligent decisions informed by data. Leveraging these tools enable businesses to become agile in their responses to internal and external changes.

Planning models

At the centre of great planning there is a unified, single source of truth which can be utilised across business functions and protected by role-based permissions. In SAC, this takes the form of a planning model which can be used to power data driven insights, store data versions and define the structural relationships between your strategic goals and your business value drivers.

This structure enables users to interact with their data and give context to their strategic decisions. Linked analysis, drill down features, smart analysis and explore mode provide users with the capability to deep dive into causal analysis or to get a high-level overview. Not only can users display analytic data in dashboard using charts and tables, but they can edit the data through the dashboard and feed this back to their model.

If I want to increase revenue targets by 10%, I simply need to select the relevant cell and type “+10%”. SAC will then disaggregate the change in target across business units based on historical weightings or by a user defined disaggregation rule. If I open a new factory, I can add this to my table and ask SAC to reallocate resources from locations to my new one at a user defined granularity.

These features allow users to define the level of detail they plan in, while supported by contextual information from linked charts and analysis.

Value Driver Trees

The ultimate manifestation of these features can be found in the value driver tree (VDT). VDTs allow users to change business value drivers and see the impact on strategic goals. You can use forecast growth percentages, or simply use the keypad or slider to adjust the value of a driver.

The central planning model structure means that changes to the value driver tree are also visualised real-time in analytic dashboards. Version management capabilities allow the user to create public or private versions of plans and compare these to each other or a baseline – without the burden of manually defining relationships or copying data.

Through making changes to drivers, you can see the impact of changes across the whole business. Allowing the user to perform what-if analysis during meetings or produce reports on the effectiveness of various strategies. Multiple trees can be created, with detailed trees for users by role, and high-level trees which show the impact of separate plans on the business as a whole. Decisions in one model can even be published to another at the click of a button.

Predictive Scenarios

Forecasting values is supported by SACs predictive forecasting capabilities. Time-series analysis can forecast a single value for future points in time accounting for seasonality, such as forecasting revenue for the next fiscal year. Regression analysis can help to define the relationship between variables, it can be used, for example, to forecast sales volume given pricing. The smart discovery feature can identify key influencers to defined variables, for example key factors influencing unit cost.

These features can be used alongside VDTs and analytic dashboards to help inform users of realistic values for business value drivers, as well as highlight key strategic focuses to achieve these.

Conclusion

We live in uncertain times, the rules and possibilities for businesses can change at a moment’s notice and businesses must be equipped to respond to these changes. To achieve this, companies must be supported by tools which can adapt to their needs, collect information from across the business and quantify impacts on the business. SAC empowers businesses to drive top down goals through the entire organisation from boardroom to shopfloor with a clear, aligned strategy. Users are equipped  to make informed decisions supported by data. SAC defines and displays the means to achieving strategic goals and adapts to the needs of the user.

Olivehorse Consulting specialises in the delivery of advanced supply chain tools covering demand, supply and inventory planning. With decades of experience in implementing these tools in some of the World’s largest and fastest moving supply chains Olivehorse are ideally placed to help you plot and execute your strategic planning journey.

To find out more, please contact us for a free taster session.