Oliver Wight releases a new customer profile highlighting Gordon Manufacturing’s successful drive to improve product innovation with Advanced Sales and Operations Planning.

Oliver Wight’s Sales and Operations Planning best practices moves company cultures toward long-term, demand-driven, unified goals and strategies

New London, N.H. – September 26, 2014 – Oliver Wight announces the availability of a new customer profile detailing the success of Gordon Manufacturing’s efforts to create a cross-functional approach which aligned all company functions across a long-term horizon and significantly improved its product development process.  With the help of Oliver Wight’s educational opportunities and coaching, implementation of Advanced Sales & Operations Planning – Integrated Business Planning identified revenue gaps and gave Gordon Manufacturing’s leadership the knowledge and tools to create a plan designed to focus the entire company on product innovation and streamlining processes.

Advanced Sales and Operations Planning (sometimes referred to as Integrated Business Planning or IBP) is a process led by senior management that evaluates and revises aggregated, time-phased projections for demand, supply, new product development, strategic projects, and the resulting financial plans. This is done on a monthly basis, on a planned 18+-month rolling horizon.

Gordon Manufacturing, part of Leggett & Platt’s Office Furniture Group, manufactures tilt mechanisms for office chairs.  Leggett & Platt’s CEO, Karl Glassman, had experienced the benefits of Advanced S&OP with another L & P division, US Spring.  He wanted to achieve the same benefits of tying operational plans with financial plans in individual Leggett & Platt businesses as well as at the corporate level.

During an introductory briefing on Sales and Operations Planning, Gordon Manufacturing’s management team realized that elements of S&OP were already in place but could be better aligned.  Soon after their leadership team trained in S&OP with Oliver Wight, they began to focus on what was needed for the company to achieve its longer-term strategies and goals.   An initial company-wide gap analysis exposed future revenue gaps due to a lean innovation pipeline.  Their current short-term planning horizon didn’t allow time to anticipate gaps and take actions to close those gaps.  Immediate action was needed.

“The S&OP process highlighted the gap in our new product development. We have now kicked off major projects to address the gap.”  -Denise Johnson, Unit Controller and S&OP leader.

A stage-gate process was put in place, an 18-month rolling horizon plan developed, demand planning became more encompassing, and S&OP software, Demantra, was implemented. Leadership now trusts the data and has a means to determine whether projects are worthwhile to pursue in support of the company’s innovation strategy. 

Gordon Manufacturing’s process was recently certified as a Capable Milestone toward Class A Business Excellence by Oliver Wight, based on the standards in The Oliver Wight Class A Checklist for Business Excellence. Use of the checklist also provides a framework for making periodic checks to ensure that the process continues to improve and is sustained.

No matter the size or complexity of your business, Integrated Business Planning (Advanced Sales & Operations Planning) will help you run your business better.  To download this full S&OP case study, visit https://www.oliverwight-americas.com/client/gordon-manufacturing

About Oliver Wight Americas Inc.

At Oliver Wight, we believe sustainable business improvement can only be delivered by your own people; so, unlike other consultancy firms, we transfer our knowledge to you. With a track record of more than 40 years of helping some of the world’s best-known organizations, Oliver Wight will help you define your company’s vision for the future and deliver performance and financial results that last.