Bonfiglioli Consulting helps eyewear brand with S&OP integration

Italian management consultancy Bonfiglioli Consulting has helped a leading global fashion brand cut down on its manufacturing lead times by nearly 60% by improving its sales & operations planning.

The client – a luxury eyewear brand with 2,700 employees – was looking to build resilience in a crumbling market by cutting down on costs and lead times, while also improving vendor performance. Bonfiglioli Consulting – an Italian management consultancy and member of the Cordence Worldwide network – was brought on board to help deliver these changes.

Bonflglioli was selected for its multifaceted consulting capabilities, which span management, operations, innovation, sustainability, supply chain, IT and change management, among others. In this case, the firm’s focus was sales & operations planning (S&OP) – the process of aligning business functions to ensure that demand and supply are in balance.

The client in question had no formalised S&OP in place, which was causing various business functions to fall out of line. Lead times were lengthening, suppliers were unreliable, orders were not being checked for feasibility and there was no digital infrastructure and tooling in place to facilitate the process. Leveraging decades of experience, Bonfliogli Consulting designed an S&OP that took stock of the entire business.

The consulting firm nailed down the specifics of production constraints and customer service expectations, formalising them into a single plan to ensure they were aligned. Also included in the plan was a set of norms to coordinate between the various business departments – commercial, planning, production and logistics. The plan streamlined the entire supply chain, preparing it for resilience and efficiency.

Using the S&OP, production capacity could be planned and resources could be scheduled, while special meetings could be called to deal with exceptional circumstances. As a result, the client’s business plans are now consistent across business functions, sustainable through every link of the value chain and – most importantly – aligned with the company strategy. A team meets regularly to discuss performance, keeping up the standard.

And the numbers spell success. Manufacturing lead times have fallen by nearly 60%, while the ‘time to market’ for newly developed products has fallen by 15%. The client has also managed to cut more than 20% on quality costs. An effort to cut supply lead times was also piloted with a vendor – yielding a reduction of just under 20%.

On the whole, Bonfiglioli Consulting managed to facilitate an achievement for which most of the global business environment is currently striving. Not only have supply chains been thrown off balance by the Covid-19 crisis, but the re-emerging economy is far more competitive than before, calling for lean, agile and efficient operations. Bonfiglioli’s client can now build on its newfound capabilities to better navigate this scenario.