Sales and Operations Planning courses across Australia in 2012

Delivering balanced and efficient sales and budgets through improved communication and information flow.

19 & 20 March - Stamford Plaza, Melbourne

22 & 23 March - Medina Grand, Perth

26 & 27 March - Sir Stamford Circular Quay, Sydney

29 & 30 March - Stamford Plaza, Brisbane

GRA Director, Matt Miller, will lead this practical course which uses industry case studies and 'take-home worksheets' to enable participants to plan for and assess their own organisations.

The course aims to:

• Educate participants in the principles of sales and operations planning
• Provide a 'how to' framework to establish and fine tune the S&OP process to ensure it remains effective
• Explore and consider the data required to support the meeting framework
• Assess the immpact improved data availability and effective reporting can have on individual and business performance
• Discuss who should attend each of the framework meetings and their roles in and around the meetings
• Discuss successful implementation approaches
• Identify opportunities for participants to apply the knowledge they have gained in the course within their organisations.

Click here to download the Sales & Operations Planning course brochure for further details and registration information.

Improving Supplier Performance

Great supplier performance management requires more than just a scorecard. Here are four strategies to focus on to ensure your supplier relationship management program is leading to results.

Step 1 - Create scorecards around business goals
Meet with company executives to find which key performance indicators (KPIs) the scorecards should focus on. These KPIs should reflect the areas where improvement will benefit the business most.

Step 2 - Set performance expectations
What will define excellent performance? Poor performance? What is the level of performance that will result in disengagement with the supplier? This needs to be set before scorecards are issued,

Step 3 - Talk with suppliers
Performance managers should communicate with suppliers from initial agreements to contract renewal periods. Open communication channels will lead to both supplier and stakeholder success.

Step 4 - Share with stakeholders
Access to inventory information will help improve other areas of the supply chain. Supply chain risk, for example can greatly benefit from performance data - but they need access to scorecard data to do so.

For more on this discussion, check out SRM Software Advice’s blog post: Four Best Practices to Improve Supplier Performance Scorecarding.

Supply Chain Review - Game Changer - Part 1

Prospects for the retail sector appear to be going from bad to worse, with far reaching implications. 

In the 2010-11 financial year, according to Deloitte Access Economics, retailing posted its worst result in 20 years, with little prospect for significant improvement in the near future.

GRA Partner Carter McNabb discusses the challenges and opportunities facing retail logistics service providers as the retail environment changes forever.
Developing a multi-channel strategy can be daunting, particularly for retailers 'forced into it' by falling sales revenues.

Will it create a problem or an opportunity for your business? 

Click here to view the entire article as published in the December edition of Supply Chain Review.