Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales and marketing demand management process
Each participant on the Strategic Supply Chain Management programme (SSCMP) is required to lead a strategic project in their organisation. Projects are many and varied and determined by the participant, their manager and potentially their executive team or CEO. They are designed in conjunction with the Executive and Professional Development team at the beginning of the programme and presented to an executive panel at the end.
Throughout the entire programme, participants work with a mentor, academics and peers as the project requires. Denise Mayhew-Leat, International Trade Manager at Tatua Dairy Company, talks about her project below.
What is the strategic problem you have decided to solve?
The problem area is the current sales and marketing demand management process and output.
- Forecasting and management of customer orders are not aligned across business units.
- Constant changes to forecasts and orders result in rework, loss of resources and efficiency, causing frustration and stress across the business.
What is the aim of the project?
To achieve an aligned, streamlined and accurate sales and marketing demand management process to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
What are the project benefits?
Multiple stakeholders, both internal and external, are involved. Bringing people together who wouldn't have otherwise generates collaboration across the business. Moreover, other business units will benefit through decreased rework, time-saving in BAU and more accurate forecasting.
Financial benefits:
- Cost-saving from better freight management
- Reduced rework across the business, from sales and marketing to supply chain and production
Non-financial benefits:
- Clarification and alignment of process
- Reduced stress and frustration
- Strengthened relationships across the business through collaboration on the project
- Clear roles and responsibilities in the demand management process
What are the project risks?
Lack of buy-in from stakeholders:
- Bringing diverse stakeholders together is tricky. You can't account for peoples' attitudes and agendas. I needed to learn new skills to mitigate this risk. The programme's peer coaching sessions have trained me to ask different questions to deal with people's concerns and conflicts. The skills I have acquired have made a difference across the board, not just in the project. Also, the collaboration session completely changed my view of what collaboration meant. It isn't compromise. It requires everyone to give something up and do something different. It enables people to communicate at a different level. This was a revelation to me!
Lack of support from the company:
- Thankfully, I have had excellent support from my company with this project, although Covid has made life difficult for all of us. I have found it difficult to work on the project while dealing with the massive supply chain issues we faced. However, the University and my mentor have been brilliant.
What are the measures of success for your project?
The metrics we'll use to demonstrate tangible benefits of the project are the usual key supply chain measures, but we are not quite far enough advanced to see the change just yet. I'm glad I have another two months to do the work!
- Demand forecast accuracy
- Agreed DIFOT currently implemented and measured
- Reduction in rework, planning changes, demand forecast changes and additional freight costs (baseline for these to be established so success can be tangibly measured).
What are the benefits of doing the SSCMP?
- The course and the project have pushed my boundaries. For me, a great thing has been the understanding that I have more value to bring to my company and other people than I thought. Being pushed out of my comfort zone has shown me that there is a LOT of life left to live.
- Learning to work with my peers a lot more has been significant for someone who is used to working in the trenches. Knowing I can contribute at the next level of leadership is wonderful.
- I now know that no one is too old to learn. I have so much more to give, learn and do in the future. It's exciting.
- Having an excellent mentor has been a great experience I haven't had before. I believe we all need mentors, and I want to establish a mentoring programme in Tatua as I've gained such value from my experience.
- I've learnt about coaching my team differently and people are starting to thrive. It's very powerful to see how this will benefit both the individuals and the company over time.