THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE

(OR, HOW TO LAND ON YOUR FEET DURING SALES AND OPERATIONS PLANNING)

2

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

We’ve all heard the bad news about how the down economy has affected consumer packaged goods (CPG)

manufacturers like you. You’re dealing with historic inventory lows, excessive promotions, up-and-down

demand, competition from private labels, and increasing regulation.

It may seem like the end of the world, but in reality it’s the beginning of a new world where creating agility in sales

and operational planning (S&OP) spells the difference between hanging on by your teeth, or charging head-on

into the lead.

You can accept the status quo, or you can take steps to rapidly and cost-effectively adapt to change.

It’s your choice.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

3

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

It takes agility for a gymnast to flip over backward. And it takes agility for you to master the S&OP process.

Once you’re agile, you can better prevent stock outages and lost sales—and get rid of unnecessary inventory.

Plus, you can improve your promotional planning, and enjoy a higher success rate with new-product

introductions.

Imagine being able to react to demand swings more quickly and profitably.

You can make it happen.

RISING UP IN A DOWN ECONOMY.

4

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

YOU DON’T NEED TO JUMP THROUGH HOOPS. In this case, that means you don’t need to rip and replace your existing software. And you don’t have to hire

a whole new staff.

But you do need to implement an integrated, open-architecture S&OP solution designed with your needs

in mind. You’ll be able to plug in new solutions that continually drive improvements. Then you can make

better decisions, faster.

NOW is the time for you to make changes that will increase your agility—so you can move quickly when the market demands it, and take

advantage of short-lived opportunities.

NOW is the time to get rid of standalone solutions and processes that tie you to lost sales opportunities, unwanted inventory, and

unprofitable promotional pricing.

5

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

You know how your vision is blurry if you don’t wear your

glasses? Well, the same thing happens with demand. If you

don’t have the right tools to bring all the relevant factors into

focus, you can’t see clearly.

Basically, you can’t practice agility in S&OP if you can’t

clearly predict demand. But there’s more to it than tracking

actual demand, historical forecast accuracy, and inventory

investments. Take the example of sunscreen. Sunscreen sales

go up around Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day.

But in the case of July 4th, the amount of increase depends on

the day of the week the holiday occurs (for example, Thursday

versus Sunday). You also need to understand the demand’s

origin, and price dynamically to match planned supply to

demand. For instance, you might be able to increase your profit

by selling more 2-ounce bottles of sunscreen to Kroger than by

selling gallons of sunscreen to Sam’s Club.

With Infor™ SCM Demand Planning, you get better

visibility into changing consumer demand, so you can

consistently improve service levels and reduce your inventory

investment. Plus, you can quickly identify issues and

opportunities, so you can manage multiple channels and better

deal with the growing power of major retailers and customers.

Armed with this information, you can shape demand to

increase profits and improve cash flow.

Unlike dated, problem-prone, spreadsheet-based solutions,

Demand Planning helps you address issues like promotions,

collaboration, and multiple channels. Whether standalone

or as part of an integrated S&OP solution, Infor SCM Demand

Planning can help you improve forecast accuracy, and make

the most of your sales and operations plans. Did you know that

by boosting forecast accuracy 2%, you can improve inventory

accuracy by 1%? By any measure, that could help you run rings around the competition.

GETTING 20/20 VISION INTO DEMAND.

I FY O UD O N TH A V E T H ER I G H T T O O L ST O B R I N G A L L T H E R E L E V A N T F A C T O R SI N T O F O C U S Y O U C A N T S E E C L E A R L Y

6

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

OK, so you’ve got your demand plan in place. Now what are you

going to do about supply? You need to figure out how cost and

supply risks will impact your profitability and cash flow. And

you need to determine which supply strategy—for instance,

low cost or highest service level—best meets your business

objectives.

When you try to synchronize supply with demand, a lot of

factors come into play. How much production capacity is

available? How much warehouse space do you need? Which

transport route should you use? Are co-packers involved?

What are your financial constraints and input costs? Is

alternative sourcing available?

Infor SCM Advanced Planner does the work for

you. It calculates trade-offs, considers constraints, and makes the best use of assets, while minimizing costs. By implementing

Advanced Planner, you can join Infor customers that have

reduced raw material costs by as much as 30%, minimized

finished goods inventory by as much as 30%, and reduced

procurement costs by up to 15%.

WALKING THE TIGHTROPE BETWEEN SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

7

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

You know how you have to rinse out your glass, or get a new

glass, if you’re switching from milk to soda pop? You follow the

same principle in batch-process manufacturing when you have

to clean out a tank or set up a new one before switching from

one product to another.

Process manufacturers face different scheduling challenges

than other types of manufacturers. You need to manage the

capacity of vessels, tanks, and lines—and the flow of product

between them. Those challenges aren’t met by spreadsheets,

conventional enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, or

master production schedules.

Infor SCM Advanced Scheduler is a sophisticated,

constraint-based solution that synchronizes all operations

across all lines. When you use Advanced Scheduler, you can

decrease the amount of lost time between vat set-up and

changeovers. That means your production costs will decrease,

and your on-time delivery performance will increase.

Using Infor SCM Advanced Scheduler, you can increase throughput at your plants anywhere from 10% to 40%, and cut compliance risks at the same time.

HOW TO ENSURE YOUR SCHEDULE DOESN’T TANK.

8

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

Agility is a powerful attribute. It can help you improve margins.

Reduce compliance risk. Eliminate waste. And drive efficiency.

It can also help you increase new-product introductions—and

turn product development into a competitive advantage.

But to become more agile, you need a powerful product

lifecycle management (PLM) solution.

Infor PLM takes the guesswork out of implementing a

product mix that will yield the best return from the resources

you already have. By using Infor PLM, a number of our customers have reduced time to market by 50% or more. Plus, Infor PLM lets you easily analyze your

existing product lineup so you can separate the top performers

from the slackers and focus on your best opportunities.

WE’LL HELP YOU BEND OVER BACKWARD.

9

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

Major retailers like Target, Meijer, CVS, and Walgreens are now

controlling a greater percentage of your distribution channels,

and they’re asking for more services and demanding better

prices. But your company can’t profitably meet these demands

without a strong ERP system. A powerful, open-systems ERP

solution will help you run an efficient, end-to-end operation—

from sales and production all the way through packaging,

compliance, scheduling, and accounting.

Infor ERP gives you everything you need to cut costs, boost

profits, improve efficiency, meet regulatory requirements, and

increase customer satisfaction—each and every time you

process orders or touch inventory.

Using Infor ERP, you get a better grip on the true cost to serve when you participate in fulfillment activities

such as radio frequency identification and co-op advertising.

With accurate and timely access to true product costs, and

costs to serve, you can continually make strategic product and

customer product mix decisions that result in higher profits.

GETTING A GRIP ON COST TO SERVE AND COMPLIANCE.

10

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

We’ve talked about the importance of SCM, PLM, and ERP

solutions to agility. But to be truly agile, you also need an

enterprise asset management (EAM) solution that monitors

and manages deployment, performance, and asset

maintenance—helping you prevent operational surprises

and uncover hidden profits. After all, if your equipment isn’t

available or reliable, there’s no way you’ll be able to deliver

perfect orders on time.

With Infor EAM, you can easily determine the moment at

which your total cost of maintaining a capital asset—such

as a pump or refrigerator—is greater than the cost to replace

the asset. Many of our customers have seen immediate savings of 6-10% in energy usage alone in their first full year using Infor EAM. But

capital assets aren’t the whole equation. Infor EAM also helps

you control inventory levels, coordinate purchasing, and

manage your maintenance workforce more efficiently

and economically.

IMPROVING YOUR OPERATIONAL BALANCE.

11

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOING AGILE (or, how to land on your feet during sales and operations planning)

You’re faced with difficult challenges. You need to constantly

meet varying demands while balancing customer service levels

and inventory investments. After all, that’s the only way to

improve cash flow and profitability.

But to meet those challenges, you need clear visibility into

demand, the cost to serve, and the total cost of quality and

supply. With right-time access to accurate information, you can

continually evaluate multiple scenarios and shape demand.

Armed with optimization techniques and improved access to

information, you can make ongoing product and custom-mix

decisions. At every level of your supply chain, you can improve

profitability and cash flow while meeting service levels.

To accomplish this, you need integrated software solutions that have been designed with your needs in

mind, and are based on service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Now is the time for you to say goodbye to dated, problem-

prone, spreadsheet-based systems—and to leverage the power of Infor’s integrated, SOA-based S&OP solutions.

TURNING CARTWHEELS AROUND THE COMPETITION.

Please feel free to post this on your blog or email it to whomever you believe would benefit from reading it.

THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

At Infor, we work with a core belief. We believe in the customer. We believe that the customer is seeking a better, more collaborative

relationship with its business software provider. And a new breed of business software: created for evolution, not revolution. Software

that's simple to buy, easy to deploy, and convenient to manage. Our 70,000 customers in more than 100 countries stand with us.

We look forward to your sharing in the results of our belief. There is a better way. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.

Infor Corporate Headquarters | 13560 Morris Road | Suite 4100 | Alpharetta, Georgia 30004 | USA | Phone: +1(800) 260 2640

Copyright © 2010 Infor. All rights reserved. The word and design marks set forth herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Infor and/or related affiliates and subsidiaries. All other trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective owners. www.infor.com.

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