The Limitations of Forecasts and Plans on Decision Making

Forecasters and planners are involved in decision making, but make limited decisions with direct business impact themselves. A forecast is an insight or a foresight, a plan is an intent. A decision is only made when resources are irrevocably allocated to the execution of the decision. Without this, multiple forecast and planning options – as advanced as they may be – remain calculations, maybe insights … Continue reading The Limitations of Forecasts and Plans on Decision Making

A New Approach to IBP Decisions during Crises

PREVIEW Niels van Hove writes that the limitations of the traditional Integrated Business Planning process are severely magnified during periods of significant disruption, which to many of us seems like the new normal. He argues that the standard meeting-and-decision schedule cannot provide timely strategic responses to disruption, as clearly evidenced by organizational steps during COVID. Instead, Niels offers a new tack centered on an IBP decision … Continue reading A New Approach to IBP Decisions during Crises

Planners Deserve a Better Vision!

We’ve entered an AI era where 76% of work can be augmented or automated. However, only 3% of companies apply automated execution and 7% autonomous end to end planning. 2% of managers apply best practice decision methods. Hardly a recipe for improving planning & decision making. Imagine the opportunity if we closed this massive planning, decision & execution gap with a new planning paradigm. Supported … Continue reading Planners Deserve a Better Vision!

A Better Plan is not Necessarily a Better Decision

Some new language has been creeping in the planning vocabulary in the last year or two: planning & decision making. What used to be planning, or a planning system, is now sometimes referred to as planning & decision making. This is most likely influenced by the acknowledgement of a new category decision intelligence by Gartner, for which they provided a definition since 2022. I now … Continue reading A Better Plan is not Necessarily a Better Decision

How to Close the Planning & Execution Automation Gap

There was a lot of interest and commentary on my last post on the Automating of Routine Collaborative Decisions in S&OE. So much that I decided to do a webinar with my colleguae Ruan Van Vuuren. Especially the below schematic got a lot of reactions. It shows for a large global beverage business, what decisions could be automated in the S&OE horizon. Although for every … Continue reading How to Close the Planning & Execution Automation Gap

The Automation of Routine Collaborative Decisions in S&OE

The Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE) cycle is a much-needed addition to your S&OP/IBP process. I used to implement it as ‘The Control Cycle’. Gartner came up with S&OE and Oliver Wight now calls it ITP (Integrated Tactical Planning). Whatever you call it, you better have it as a business if you want to react to short term disruptions Where your IBP process focuses on … Continue reading The Automation of Routine Collaborative Decisions in S&OE

Intelligent IBP – a new role for supply chain planners

Preview – Most IBP cycles around the world are based on a 20-year-old process definition supported by 20-year-old planning concepts. This traditional IBP is not set up for a fast-changing world, where speed of decision making confers a competitive advantage. Intelligent automation will change this. In this series of blogs, I will discuss the transition of traditional IBP towards a more intelligent IBP. Here, you … Continue reading Intelligent IBP – a new role for supply chain planners

Intelligent IBP – Closing the Decision Gaps

Preview – Most IBP cycles around the world are based on a 20-year-old process definition supported by 20-year-old planning concepts. This traditional IBP is not set up for a fast-changing world, where speed of decision making confers a competitive advantage. Intelligent automation will change this. In this series of short blogs, I will discuss the transition of traditional IBP towards a more intelligent IBP.  In … Continue reading Intelligent IBP – Closing the Decision Gaps

Intelligent IBP – The Rise of Autonomous

Preview – Most IBP cycles around the world are based on a 20-year-old process definition supported by 20-year-old planning concepts. This traditional IBP is not set up for a fast-changing world, where speed of decision making confers a competitive advantage. Intelligent automation will change this. In a series of short blogs, I will discuss the transition of traditional IBP towards a more intelligent IBP.  In … Continue reading Intelligent IBP – The Rise of Autonomous

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!