The Ask:

How do we introduce and standardise a global Integrated Business Planning Process?
Need to expand focus and integration of new, growing, strategic market.
Focus on Innovation and Technology and global process step integration.

Challenges:

The monthly IBP process had traditionally been driven by demand from the Americas and did not include EMEA or Asia-Pacific demand
There was ineffective integration of data from a new and developing global market. This led to poor forecasting of customer demand, raw materials, capacity, and labour, as well as reactivity and fire-fighting, opposed to proactivity
Coupled with poor data integration, the business IBP cycle had become routine, “data heavy” and suffered from team members “going through the motions”
The initial IBP process was more than 15 years old, and data complexity, accuracy and integrity had degraded over time
The traditional, base business dominated the process. Stronger integration of the new growing market needed to be undertaken to facilitate strategic execution
Strategic growth in a new global market would challenge global capacity. An upgraded IBP process was critical to forecast when investment was needed to deliver increased capacity; especially with commissioning lead times of 12-18 months

Assembled a design team with leaders of each process step within the IBP process
Comprehensive evaluation of current state – Process, Data, Organisation, Inputs/Outputs
Education related to the evolution of S&OP into IBP and the importance of scenario planning
Analysis of data inputs and outputs to evaluate if data complexity could be reduced Innovation, Project Mgr. and Portfolio Mgt.? Where to meet the customer? Planning materials for demand forecasts? Strategic Material Supply? Inventory Planning? Financial Forecasting?
Process mapping for current state and future state and identification of process change using IDEF0 and Kaizen principles
Requirement to build standardised process – data, people, process steps and presentations

Complete process redesign which included standardised process, input and output templates, RACI associated with each process step and significantly reduced cycle process time
An IBP process which acted as a conduit between short- and long–term horizons
An upgraded process that provided better focus and integration of an important market that will drive strategic growth
Improved Product Management Review process that was now capable of managing NPD through to product launch and understanding its impact on market share and portfolio management
Enhanced integration to deliver capacity scenarios and investment requirements that were driven by global market growth and market share expansion forecasts
An IBP process cycle that was reduced from 28 days to 5 days which had a significant impact on process data integrity
A focus of “Learn by doing” understanding that forecast data is inherently lacking in accuracy, but the team would constantly strive for data accuracy improvements