Demand driven adaptive enterprise and adaptive sales and operations planning

Author's Biography

Dick Ling Richard C. (Dick) Ling is recognised as the creator of sales and operations planning (S&OP) and well regarded as an educator, speaker and consultant. Dick’s interest in manufacturing applications led him to Arista Information Systems in North Carolina where he implemented material requirements planning (MRP) systems for companies including Ingersoll Rand and Warner & Swasey in the early 1970s. He and his staff developed MRP software with the first master scheduling capability in the industry. This software also had the first planning bill capability. Ollie Wight recognised what Dick was accomplishing at Arista and asked him to conduct a ‘hands-on’ MRP class for the Oliver Wight companies in 1974. Dick became an Education Associate in 1979 and worked with the Oliver Wight organisation until 1992. Dick’s specialities were the Master Scheduling class and the Sales and Operations Planning class, which he authored. Ollie Wight passed away in 1983 and Dick was tapped to be a teacher in the Top Management class. Dick launched the first Sales and Operations Planning class for the Oliver Wight companies in 1985. In 1987, he co-authored Orchestrating Success, the first book about sales and operations planning. Dick began collaborating with Andy Coldrick, who had joined Oliver Wight in 1986. That collaboration lasted 28 years until Andy’s death in 2014. They worked together at Oliver Wight, and as a duo in Ling-Coldrick from 1986 till 2014. In 2009 they self-published Breakthrough S&OP, An Assessment Guide.

Carol Ptak is currently a Partner with the Demand Driven Institute and was most recently at Pacific Lutheran University as Visiting Professor and Distinguished Executive in Residence. Previously, she was Vice President and Global Industry Executive for manufacturing and distribution industries at PeopleSoft, where she developed the concept of demand driven manufacturing (DDM). Carol spent four years at IBM Corporation culminating in the position of Global SMB Segment Executive. A leading authority in the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain tools to drive improved bottom line performance, Carol’s expertise is well grounded in four decades of practical experience as a successful practitioner, consultant and educator in manufacturing operations. Her pragmatic approach to complex issues and dynamic presentation style has her in high demand worldwide on the subject of how to leverage these tools and achieve sustainable success. She holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO programme at Stanford University. Carol is a frequent educator at university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and 11 APICS International conferences. She is the author of numerous articles as well as the books Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning (Industrial Press, 2016), Precisely Wrong – Why Conventional Planning Fails and How to Fix It (Industrial Press, 2017) and Orlicky’s Material Requirements Planning, 3rd edn (McGraw-Hill, 2011) all with Chad Smith, MRP and Beyond and ERP: Tools, Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain with and Eli Schragenheim, Theory H.O.W. with Harold Cavallaro, Necessary But Not Sufficient with Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim. Together with Dean Gilliam she updated Quantum Leap, originally written by John Constanza.

Chad Smith is the co-author (with Carol Ptak) of Orlicky’s Material Requirements Planning, 3rd edn (McGraw-Hill, 2011), Demand Driven Material Requirements Planning (Industrial Press, 2016) and Precisely Wrong – Why Conventional Planning Fails and How to Fix It (Industrial Press, 2017). He is also the co-author (with Debra Smith) of Demand Driven Performance: Using Smart Metrics (McGraw-Hill, 2014). He is a co-founder of and Partner in the Demand Driven Institute, an organisation dedicated to proliferating demand driven methods throughout the world. In 1997 Chad co-founded Constraints Management Group (CMG), a services and technology company specialising in demand driven manufacturing, materials and project management systems for mid-range and large manufacturers. He served as Managing Partner of CMG from 1998 to 2015. Clients past and present include Unilever, LeTourneau Technologies, Boeing, Intel, Erickson Air-Crane, Siemens, IBM, the Charles Machine Works (Ditch Witch) and Oregon Freeze Dry. Chad is also a certified expert in all disciplines of the Theory of Constraints, studying directly under the tutelage of the late Eli Goldratt.