Get results with sales and operations planning consulting.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is a part of supply chain planning where a business achieves long-term synchronization across every stage of the supply chain. It utilizes data from all of a company’s key functional areas, including manufacturing, marketing, sales, distribution and operations and finance. The two goals of sales and operations planning consulting are to align business objectives across departments and to match consumer demand with supply from manufacturers. This is accomplished through careful project management and execution across business departments to provide a holistic approach to supply chain planning and operations.

S&OP’s virtue lies largely in its holistic approach. The overarching view helps organize business operations across the board, affecting almost every piece of an organization. For example, synchronization between departments can reduce the time needed to fulfill an order, allowing it to arrive faster and improve overall customer satisfaction. Cutting inventory costs by gaining a better view of supply and demand similarly can cut costs overall, helping a business become more profitable and efficient. In addition to increasing sales, some of the most common benefits of sales and operations planning include:

• Easier to understand and present data to share with stakeholders
• Improved levels of customer service
• Better product revenues
• Increased profitability
• Reduced lead times
• Lowered inventory
• Faster responsiveness
• Top-down control from management
• Better demand and supply forecast accuracy

The S&OP process can vary from organization to organization, as each company’s departments and goals will be slightly different. However, there are a few common steps that most planners tend to implement, as presented by Thomas Wallace and Robert Stahl.

1. Data gathering: Information is collected on past sales and trends and used to create forecasts.
2. Demand planning: This step includes checking forecasts, accounting for possible variability, revising customer services policy, tracking sources of demand, and creating promotion plans.
3. Supply planning: The company’s ability to meet current and future demand is assessed. This is done by reviewing available inventory and capacity and then scheduling future operations.
4. Plan reconciliation: Supply and demand plans are measured against the organization’s financial considerations.
5. Finalize and present the S&OP: The plan is finalized and is ready to present to the organization and shareholders.

Since S&OP is a complicated collaborative process that spans multiple areas of an organization, it can have some challenges. The most common challenges include:

• Creating accurate and reliable reporting on supply and demand to inform company decisions
• Keeping track of and presenting decision criteria in a way that explains impact on KPIs such as supply chain costs, customer service, etc.
• Presenting changes in supply and demand to gain managerial plan approval
• Supply chain planning for introducing new products, phasing out current products or acquiring new products/product lines through merger and acquisition
• Translating large sets of data into information that can be used to make actionable, data-driven decisions

A manufacturer or distributor’s ultimate formula for success is making sure customers have access to items, whenever and wherever they want them. Current logistics and technology capabilities make successful sales and operations planning more attainable than ever before. The question is, at what cost and rate of return?

enVista provides manufacturers and distributors the answers to these questions by helping them attain significant savings, inventory reductions and efficiencies through the optimization of their supply chain networks.

Our sales and operations planning consultants are demand and supply planning experts. We hold suppliers accountable to help our clients create business transformation and drive profits with supply chain and S&OP best practices. 

Companies that integrate sales and operations planning (S&OP) into their daily planning and execution are equipped to address order forecast anomalies as well as production and capacity limitations. This places your organization ahead of the competition, even in unfavorable circumstances.

These same companies may not always fulfill 100 percent of the ordered quantity as requested, but they make accurate promises to their customers based upon customer priority, profit margin and supplier capacity, and they strive for continuous improvement.

Our sales and operations planning process will enable your company to:

• -Optimize production and inventory costs through supply chain optimization
• -Synchronize between departments
• -Create supply and demand plans to increase customer satisfaction 
• -Lower costs by applying the correct resources in order to meet demand
• -Develop better accountability and teamwork by decreasing functional boundaries within your organization