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S&OP may sound simple, but many companies struggle to make it work. Larry Lapide of MIT is one of the leading experts on S&OP. In his article “Sales and Operations Planning Part I: The Process” in The Journal of Business Forecasting, Dr. Lapide says that these factors are required for S&OP success:

 Ongoing, routine S&OP meetings

 Structured meeting agendas

 Pre-work to support meeting inputs

 Cross-functional participation

 Participants empowered to make decisions

 An unbiased, responsible organization that can run a disciplined process

 Internal collaborative process leading to consensus and accountability

 An unbiased baseline forecast to start the process

 Joint supply and demand planning to ensure balance

 Support from an integrated supply-demand planning technology

 External inputs to the process

To read more about the S&OP process, visit http://ctl.mit.edu/sites/ctl.mit.edu/files/library/public/article_jbf_soplanningi_lapide.pdf.

When the forecast has been established, the operations team decides whether the numbers are reasonable and what it would take to manufacture that many products. In some cases, operations may not have the staffing, the equipment, or the raw materials to make all the widgets that are called for in the unconstrained forecast. In that case, the operations team would ask the sales team to reduce its forecast based on all the constraints that have been identified. Alternatively, the operations team may need to make changes or investments that will enable them to meet the sales forecast.

S&OP is an iterative process that needs to be repeated so that the constrained sales forecast and the manufacturing production plan stay in sync. In many cases, the S&OP process involves senior executives from a company to ensure that trade-offs are understood and aligned with the corporate strategy.

Fundamentally, S&OP is about sharing information and getting people to agree on a plan. Several software companies offer S&OP tools to help the sales and operations teams automate workflows and streamline the process.

Before making an investment in S&OP software, it’s a good idea to get input from consultants who specialize in S&OP and to check out the latest product reviews from software analyst firms. Companies whose products get high marks will often provide free copies of these reports.