Catching up with Mike Mastroianni, Vice President North American Planning, Reliability & Operations, The Campbell Soup Company

 

This month, Executive Editor Kara Romanow catches up with Mike Mastroianni, Vice President North American Planning, Reliability & Operations for The Campbell Soup Company. A self-proclaimed advocate of sales and operations planning (S&OP), Mike shares his ideas on how improved supporting systems and C-level commit ment can further enhance the value of S&OP.

 

The increased rate of innovation is getting a lot of press these days and is absolutely required to drive sustainable growth. I suspect that what keeps most supply chain leaders up at night is the impact this will have across their respective organizations. More innovation may or may not lead to more SKUs (if managed effectively), but one thing is for sure, the volatility in demand and complexity across the supply chain is certain to increase.

What will keep us all sleeping better at night are a highly synchronized innovation plan (through S&OP) and a responsive/flexible supply chain. Sounds pretty simple, but without these core capabilities, increased volatility and complexity will almost certainly lead to the circle of doom (higher levels of inventory, higher costs and lower service). At the end of the day, the execution of a more responsive and cost effective supply chain will require a relentless focus on optimizing end-to-end business drivers. The key here is "end-to-end", as many organizations lack the visibility and full understanding of the interaction of cost drivers across the entire supply chain.

 

Demonstrating an unprecedented understanding of consumer insights in the category is a great place to start. Through fact-based tools and extensive consumer research, manufacturers can demonstrate value added perspectives to customer programs and strategies. Additionally, it is important to develop relationships of trust and a mutual understanding that both parties can win by sharing as much information as possible.

Technology plays a critical role in converting reams of real-time data into meaningful and actionable consumer insights. We are all chasing the vision that enables us to leverage these insights to optimize service and profits from the manufacturing shop floor all the way to the shelf.

 

DDSN is still very early in its maturity and very few manufacturers and software providers seem to have a clear roadmap to implement a fully integrated solution. I do believe we will soon solve the software side of demand sensing, however, the real challenge will be retrofitting the supply side response to cost effectively respond to these improved demand signals. Traditional manufacturing focused lean initiatives alone will not be enough. More holistic programs that address the total cost and design of products will be required and supply chain organizations will have to engage more cross-functional support in designing more agile and lean solutions from supplier to shelf.

 

I am a huge advocate of S&OP but have become very frustrated with the lack of robust systems to support the process. Specifically, gaps exist in scenario planning and a seamless way to integrate and present data from ERP and advanced planning systems. So much effort is put into the one number plan and not enough is placed in understanding the integrated impact of the range of numbers that may play out in the market. As a result, it is very difficult to make truly optimized decisions at the executive meetings.

 

I also would love to see more S&OP education and ownership across the "C-level". I have participated in many cross industry forums on S&OP and the most common obstacle I hear in advancing S&OP is "the lack of senior management commitment and understanding". Today's best-in-class S&OP designs have advanced significantly and have become key enablers in leading consumer goods organizations. The best designs are exception-based decision making forums focused on every aspect of running the business (for example, new products, P&L and balance sheet). Without the commitment of the C-level, too many S&OP process owners are killing themselves pushing this process up a steep hill and business results will always be sub-optimized.