Putting S&OP on the Fast Track

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the January-February 2010 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

January-February 2010

As the search for news forms of energy intensifies, supply chain professionals are presented with an unprecedented challenge and opportunity: To apply their managerial and analytical skills in delivering this energy to the end consumers. How effectively they respond may ultimately determine whether—and when—the promise of green energy finally gets fulfilled.

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A.T. Cross, maker of A.T. Cross brand pens and other fine writing instruments and accessories, has been transforming itself and its product lines over the last few years. Between 2005 and 2007, the company completed a fundamental overhaul of its product line, bringing award-winning and innovative designs to market and breathing new life into a once old and tradition-bound product line.

As part of this transformation, A.T. Cross introduced 25 percent of its product mix as innovation, built a growing direct-to-consumer business, and opened new geographical regions through the U.S., Europe, and Asia. During this same period, it also moved its manufacturing and assembly operations from Lincoln, R.I., headquarters to a company-owned plant in China.

This aggressive transformation began paying off. The company experienced steady growth in a flat-to-declining market, and its new products and channel expansion promised an even more profitable future. By late 2007, however, inventory levels and product/channel complexity led to significant inventory imbalances. Thrust into the realities of managing a global supply chain, fast-moving, on-demand, consumer goods market, management realizes that the longer supply chain and historic planning practices brought with them a distinct set of challenges.

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