Lennox, a global provider of climate control solutions for the heating, air conditioning and refrigeration markets, has begun the task of transitioning from APO into IBP. SCMO2 was chosen as their planning and implementation partner, defeating both Bristlecone and Intrigo through an open bid selection. Outcomes will be achieved through a long-term gated process rather than an all-at-once undertaking.

A Smart APO to IBP Strategy

“They’re not using a lot of IBP functionality in this first phase,” explains Clay Thomas, Principal and IBP Practice Director of SCMO2. “Rather, we’re working to get the system integrated into the landscape of their data flow. Most of our focus right now is building a suite of S&OP decks by bringing all their existing data into Excel-interface templates so they can streamline their collection process each month.”

Clay emphasizes how this strategic approach helps build an efficient foundation upon which their future demand and supply planning transition can unfold. By helping to create solid processes and best practices now, corporate-wide implementation and adoption downstream will meet far less resistance.

“It’s a smart move by Lennox,” he continues. “Because they currently use APO for demand and supply planning, we want to make sure we get all the ECC, BW and other data flows coming into their data warehouse migrated over to the Excel interface so users get comfortable with that. Then, as they continue their journey to IBP and begin to bring demand planning and supply planning into IBP and start turning off those parts of APO, their S&OP data reports and processes will already be prepared and the transition should be seamless.”

Already Under Budget, Ahead of Schedule

Efforts began back in April with the original five-month phase one timeline scheduled to achieve all data integration and reporting capability by the end of September. With the milestones accomplished to date, progress is on track to be completed six weeks ahead of schedule and under the originally anticipated budget. Clay credits Lennox for their vision and commitment to the process.

“Lennox does a great job empowering people internally to get fully engaged and actively participate in leading these implementation efforts,” he shares. “We were brought in to provide the knowledge and strategy, and Lennox quickly adopted our recommendations and committed the IT resources and capabilities needed to become self-sufficient in building out the next phases of this process. We have really appreciated this relationship and look forward to working side by side with the Lennox team as this IBP transition continues.”