Operational Planning Health Check
Operational Planning Health Check
The Operational Planning Health Check is a focused assessment designed to identify the structural causes of planning performance issues and quantify their business impact.
By linking operational symptoms to underlying process, governance, capability and system drivers, the assessment helps organizations understand where value is being lost, why it is happening and which interventions will have the greatest impact. The outcome is a fact-based view of planning performance, structural root causes and prioritized recommendations for action.
How to recognize the need
Many organizations experience planning instability, declining service levels, excess inventory or underutilized planning systems, but struggle to determine the underlying causes.
The questions below are intended as a quick self-assessment. They are not a formal audit, but a way to evaluate whether your organization has sufficient visibility into the root causes of planning performance issues and the value at stake.
Answer each question with:
Yes – We can answer this confidently and consistently.
Partly – We have some understanding, but there are gaps, assumptions or differing views.
No – We cannot answer this confidently today.
Six questions to test yourself
How many can you answer with confidence?
Value exposure
Can you quantify, in financial terms, how planning instability impacts service, inventory, capacity utilization or working capital?
Root-cause clarity
When planning performance deteriorates, is there a shared understanding of the underlying causes, or are they still debated across functions?
Performance consistency
Can you explain why some sites, business units or planning teams consistently outperform others operating under similar conditions?
Planning system effectiveness
Is your planning system being used as intended, or has it become dependent on overrides, workarounds and manual intervention?
Fact-based diagnosis
Do you have objective evidence of what is driving planning performance, or are improvement efforts largely based on assumptions and local observations?
Intervention confidence
Before launching a new improvement initiative, can you confidently determine whether the issue is rooted in process, governance, capability, data or technology?
How to interpret your results
5–6 Yes answers
You likely have good visibility into planning performance and its structural drivers. The challenge may be execution and prioritization rather than diagnosis.
3–4 Yes answers
You have some understanding of the issues, but important gaps may remain in root-cause analysis, value quantification or intervention prioritization.
0–2 Yes answers
Planning performance issues may be driving significant business impact without a clear understanding of where value is leaking or which actions will create the greatest improvement. Establishing a fact-based diagnostic baseline is often the first step before launching larger transformation initiatives.
Explore how each dimension can be addressed
The four dimensions represent different sources of execution friction. Each of our advisory services is designed to strengthen a specific dimension while supporting the overall planning and decision-making system.
- Analytical Capability → Supply Chain Design Excellence
- Strategic Clarity → Decision Ownership Program, Business Architecture & Capability Roadmap, Operational Planning Health Check
- Principled Execution → Planning by Design
- Daily Execution → Planning Control Program
Most organizations experience challenges across multiple dimensions, which is why several services are designed to work together.
Talk to a supply chain expert!
The questions you could not answer are the ones worth talking about. Our experts work with supply chain leaders every week on exactly these challenges. Reach out and let us start with where it hurts most.
