Author: Niels

Niels has 20 years of experience in supply chain and business planning and enjoy writing a thing or two every now and then. I'm on the advisory board of Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting and had the honour to have been labelled as "one of Foresight's most visionary authors." My articles cover company culture, strategy execution, S&OP, IBP, automation, augmentation and human centricity in business planning. As children's book author, publisher and mental toughness advocate, I hope to make a positive contribution by helping children learn about confidence, resilience and a positive mindset. My book series 'My Strong Mind' has been published in 10 languages.
S&OP

Integrated Business Planning: A New Narrative for an Old Process

PREVIEW Integrated Business Planning (IBP) has been a valuable business process since its incarnation as Sales & Operations Planning in the mid-1980s. The monthly cycle of S&OP meetings has been the forum in which a firm’s forecasts have been presented and reconciled across functional areas. Authors Niels van Hove and Hein Regeer explain that while planning and forecasting technologies have benefitted from significant innovations since … Continue reading Integrated Business Planning: A New Narrative for an Old Process

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S&OP

Cognitive Automation in Planning & Forecasting

I recently presented at the 41st ISF symposium from the International Institute of Forecasters, where I discussed #cognitiveautomation in planning & forecasting, which is availably in this video (25 min) I cover:– why #artificialntelligence alone is not enough to achieve #intelligentautomation– what’s really required to achieve #autonomousplanning?– boundaries of automation, augmentation & human centricity in decision making– why the human stays central in the #futureofwork Hope you enjoy cheers, Niels Continue reading Cognitive Automation in Planning & Forecasting

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Digital supply chain, Supply Chain

Seven reasons why Artificial Intelligence can’t drive business value alone

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be at the center of value creation in the future enterprise. It has the potential to augment and automate both physical labor and the knowledge worker. AI powered cognitive automation has the potential to make ordinary knowledge workers into super humans leading to superior performance, triumphing over human genius and activity alone. However, enterprises should not focus on artificial intelligence alone … Continue reading Seven reasons why Artificial Intelligence can’t drive business value alone

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Digital supply chain, Leadership, Supply Chain

AI Is Here to Automate the Knowledge Worker!

This article is my commentary on an article published in Foresight, written by the authors of the book Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and the Future of Enterprise (Sanders & Wood, 2020). For the original Foresight article and other commentary, you can go here. INTRODUCTION: A NEW ERA The authors of The Humachine make a valid point that enterprises should not focus on artificial intelligence (AI) alone … Continue reading AI Is Here to Automate the Knowledge Worker!

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Digital supply chain, Supply Chain

Achieving Autonomous Supply Chain Planning; an expert interview

An interview on Autonomous Planning with Niels van Hove I recently got interviewed by Bethanie Maples about my Foresight article; ‘Autonomous or Lights out Planning, what’s really required?’ Bethanie is an AI and human cognition expert, does research at Standford University and is advisor to many entrepreneurs. I explain how we have to make the leap forward from Wave 1 (ERP) and Wave 2 (APS) … Continue reading Achieving Autonomous Supply Chain Planning; an expert interview

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Digital supply chain

The agile supply chain is back. But this time it’s for real!

My mum used to say that if you wait long enough, the same things will come back in to fashion. I suppose that is also true when you blog long enough about supply chain. In 2012 I wrote a short blog about demand driven & agile supply chains, which seems to be all the hype back then. Some of the quotes I picked up from … Continue reading The agile supply chain is back. But this time it’s for real!

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Digital supply chain, S&OP, Supply Chain

Why Cognitive Automation makes IBP more Agile and more Strategic

A common IBP cycle has a monthly cadence providing an – up to 24 months – forward view of a business. It is often supported by a weekly control cycle, sometimes called Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE). This cycle plans demand & supply in more detail and over a shorter horizon, often around 12 weeks. IBP is data and resource hungry. Planners spend up to … Continue reading Why Cognitive Automation makes IBP more Agile and more Strategic

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Digital supply chain, S&OP, Supply Chain

Technology Support in Integrated Business Planning: Automation, Augmentation and Human Centricity

Preview In his 2019 Foresight article, Niels van Hove examined eight technological hurdles that must be overcome to enable autonomous or ‘lights out’ supply-chain planning. He reasoned that to support such planning we need to implement a third wave of integrated supply-chain planning software. In this article, Niels argues that these technological advances can lead to either (a) planning-process and decision automation or (b) planning … Continue reading Technology Support in Integrated Business Planning: Automation, Augmentation and Human Centricity

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Digital supply chain

Achieving autonomous or “lights out” supply chain planning

Operating in the supply chain world, it’s hard to not come across terminology like supply chain planning 4.0, “light touch” planning or “lights out” planning. All have generated a lot of hype over the past few years … and for good reason. Considerable progress has been made in technology in recent years, continuing at a dizzying pace. Autonomous development is happening in most major car … Continue reading Achieving autonomous or “lights out” supply chain planning

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Digital supply chain, S&OP

How to move IBP from a Tedious Process to an Executive Decision Factory

When I was IBP manager at a multi-billion-dollar CPG company about 10 years ago, I remember a marketing director telling me just before the executive IBP meeting; ‘Niels, this feels like going to the dentist every month’. I agreed with him. Back then, preparing for a monthly IBP meeting was a painful, tedious effort, with my full planning team consumed and running overtime to get … Continue reading How to move IBP from a Tedious Process to an Executive Decision Factory

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