1️⃣ Businesses don’t define what success looks like.

🚩 The operations team wants to minimize costs, while the sales team wants higher service levels, leading to conflicting expectations.

2️⃣ Inconsistent, outdated, or incomplete data undermines optimization results.

🚩 Inventory levels, units of measures, rates, BOM data are incomplete or inconsistent between different systems.

3️⃣ The software doesn’t align with the company’s operational realities

🚩 The software may lack functionality for certain requirements, like campaign planning or "storage" resources e.g. product maturation, making implementation ineffective.

4️⃣ Employees resist adopting the new system

🚩 Planners prefer using Excel even after implementation; they feel threatened that the software will replace their roles.

5️⃣ Without leadership support, projects often lack direction and resources.

🚩 Projects lose direction, funding, and priority without a strong executive sponsorship.

6️⃣ Expecting perfect results leads to disappointment.

🚩Teams expect perfect optimization results but fail to account for human decision-making and system limitations.

7️⃣ End users lack the skills or confidence to use the software effectively

🚩 Training focuses only on basic features and key users don't not have access to ongoing resources, leaving advanced optimization functionality underutilized.

8️⃣ Poor vendor selection: the chosen software doesn’t fully meet the organization’s needs or future scalability.

🚩 The software is chosen without having a technical person present. The choice is made based on slides or demos which do not show the essential functionality.

9️⃣ Trying to do too much at once causes delays and confusion.

🚩 A company tries to optimize S&OP, IBP, and RCCP simultaneously, overwhelming both staff and the system.

🔟 Optimization is treated as a one-time project instead of an ongoing process.

🚩 End users’ feedback about system inefficiencies is ignored, leading to frustration and underperformance.

🤔 Are any of the points surprising? Which one?