The Sales and Operations Planning Process

The Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process is a strategic management approach used by manufacturing organizations to synchronize sales, production, and other functions within the company. It involves a series of structured steps aimed at aligning supply chain activities with demand forecasts while considering various constraints and objectives. The primary goal of S&OP is to balance supply and demand effectively, ensuring that the right products are available at the right time and in the right quantities to meet customer requirements while minimizing costs and maximizing profitability.

The benefits of using the S&OP process

The sales and operations planning process brings numerous benefits to manufacturing organizations through fostering alignment, efficiency, and agility across various functions. S&OP enables better alignment between sales, marketing, finance, and operations departments, ensuring that all functions work towards common goals and objectives. By integrating inputs from different departments into a unified operational plan, S&OP helps to break down silos and improve cross-functional communication and collaboration. This alignment minimizes conflicting objectives and improves decision-making, enabling the organization to respond more effectively to changes in demand, supply, or market conditions.

The S&OP process also enhances operational efficiency by optimizing resource allocation and balancing supply with demand. By forecasting future demand and aligning production plans accordingly, S&OP helps to prevent stockouts or excess inventory situations. This can reduce carrying costs and improve inventory turns. The S&OP facilitates better utilization of production capacity, labor resources, and equipment, minimizing idle time and improving overall efficiency. By synchronizing production schedules with demand forecasts, manufacturing organizations can minimize lead times, improve on-time delivery performance, and enhance customer satisfaction.

The process offers strategic benefits, as well. S&OP drives agility and responsiveness by enabling proactive decision-making and scenario planning. By regularly reviewing and updating the organization’s operational plan based on changing business conditions, the process helps organizations to identify potential risks and opportunities early and develop contingency plans accordingly. This proactive approach enables manufacturing organizations to adapt quickly to market fluctuations, supply chain disruptions, or changes in customer preferences. Ultimately, S&OP fosters a culture of continuous improvement, allowing organizations to refine their forecasting models, planning processes, and decision-making capabilities over time, thereby increasing their competitiveness and resilience in dynamic market environments.

The S&OP process, step-by-step

The process typically involves several sequential steps aimed at aligning sales, production, and other functions within an organization to meet customer demand efficiently while optimizing resources. This also includes collecting the relevant data required from these departments into a centralized location where it can be combined to provide a holistic view of the company’s operations. While every organization has its differences, we’ve outlined the general steps to the S&P process. 

1. Gathering and Analyzing data

• Collect historical sales data, market trends, customer forecasts, and other relevant information.
• Analyze the data to identify patterns, trends, and demand drivers.

2. Demand Planning

• Develop a forecast of future demand for products or services, typically categorized by product families, SKUs, or other relevant groupings.
• Consider inputs from sales, marketing, and other stakeholders.
• Utilize statistical forecasting methods, market intelligence, and collaboration with customers to refine demand projections.

3. Supply Planning

• Assess the production capacity, material availability, and other resources needed to meet the forecasted demand.
• Evaluate constraints such as machine capacity, labor availability, lead times for raw materials, and supplier capabilities.
• Determine the feasibility of meeting demand based on current production capabilities and potential constraints.

4. Inventory Planning

• Analyze current inventory levels across the supply chain, including raw materials, work in progress (WIP), and finished goods.
• Determine optimal inventory targets to balance service levels, production efficiency, and working capital requirements.
• Identify excess or obsolete inventory and develop strategies for inventory optimization.

5. Financial Planning

• Translate the operational plan into financial terms, including revenue forecasts, cost projections, and profit margins.
• Assess the financial implications of different scenarios and alternatives.
• Align the operational plan with overall financial goals and objectives.

6. S&OP Meeting to develop operational plan

• Conduct a collaborative meeting involving key stakeholders from sales, marketing, finance, operations, and supply chain management.
• Review and discuss the demand forecast, supply plans, inventory levels, and financial projections.
• Identify potential gaps or mismatches between supply and demand and discuss mitigation strategies.
• Make decisions and adjustments to the operational plan based on consensus and alignment with business objectives.

7. Execution and Monitoring

• Implement the agreed-upon operational plan, including production schedules, procurement activities, and inventory management strategies.
• Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales performance, production efficiency, inventory turns, and customer service levels.
• Regularly review and update the operational plan as new information becomes available or business conditions change.

8. Continuous Improvement

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the S&OP process and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Capture lessons learned and best practices to enhance future planning cycles.
• Continuously refine forecasting models, planning algorithms, and decision-making processes to improve accuracy and agility.

By following these steps and engaging in a continuous improvement process, manufacturing organizations can effectively align their sales and operations to meet customer demand while optimizing resources and maximizing profitability.

The key metrics used in the S&OP process

There’s a lot of data that goes into the process. It’s best to start understanding what will be measured first. These metrics provide insights into various aspects of the S&OP process, including demand forecasting accuracy, supply chain performance, financial impact, and overall alignment with business objectives. Below are some of the key metrics for the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process that are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of the planning process, monitoring performance, and driving continuous improvement. 

1. Demand Forecast Accuracy

Measure of how closely actual sales or customer demand aligns with forecasted demand. Calculated as the percentage difference between forecasted demand and actual sales over a specified period.

2. Inventory Turns

Indicates how efficiently inventory is being managed and utilized within the supply chain. Calculated as the ratio of cost of goods sold (COGS) to average inventory value.

3. Customer Service Level

Measure of the organization’s ability to meet customer demand within specified lead times and service level agreements (SLAs). Typically expressed as the percentage of orders fulfilled on time and in full (OTIF).

4. Production Plan Attainment

Measure of the organization’s ability to execute the production plan as agreed upon in the S&OP process. Calculated as the percentage of planned production volume achieved within a specified period.

5. Supply Chain Flexibility

Assess the organization’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to changes in demand, supply, or market conditions. Includes metrics such as lead time variability, supplier responsiveness, and production agility.

6. Cost-to-Serve

Measure of the cost incurred to fulfill customer demand, including production, transportation, inventory holding, and order processing costs. Helps to assess the profitability of different customer segments or product lines.

7. Revenue and Margin Impact

Evaluate the financial impact of the S&OP process on revenue generation and profit margins.   – Includes metrics such as revenue growth, gross margin percentage, and contribution margin.

8. Forecast Bias and Accuracy

Assess the bias and accuracy of demand forecasts by comparing forecasted values to actual sales data. Includes metrics such as Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), forecast bias, and forecast accuracy.

9. New Product Introduction (NPI) Performance

Measure the effectiveness of introducing new products or variants into the market. Includes metrics such as time to market, launch success rate, and post-launch sales performance.

10. S&OP Process Compliance

Evaluate the extent to which the organization follows the defined S&OP process and meets established timelines and milestones. Includes metrics such as meeting attendance, adherence to planning guidelines, and completion of action items.

Some of these data points may already be tracked by the organization. Others may require new processes to collect the data for calculating the metrics above. Tracking these key metrics can help manufacturing organizations identify areas for improvement, drive alignment across functions, and enhance the overall effectiveness of their S&OP process.

Using technology to streamline the process

As mentioned above, the S&OP process is one that relies heavily on large amounts of data to perform efficiently. For small businesses with perhaps one or two products, the process can be managed with a series of spreadsheets. When companies grow and product lines increase, managing the data and metrics for hundreds or thousands of parts and a swelling list of suppliers all but requires purpose-built software. 

The best software system for the task has to provide two important functionalities: information collection and collaboration. Managing the amount of data needed and its intersections is best done through databases rather than two dimensional tables. Connecting the groups within the organization together to update and manage changes in the data also requires software designed for handling simultaneous operation by a number of people. 

The software that most companies turn to for both of these functionalities is Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems. Systems like Aligni MRP are designed and built on robust databases to handle the large amounts of information a process like S&OP requires. They also provide the access needed by the departments who contribute to the process. MRP systems go further in providing tools to help with the planning, inventory management, and purchasing processes. When all these aspects come together, it not only provides the ability to perform S&OP analysis but also brings next level efficiencies across the organization.

Bringing it all together

The Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process is an advanced management process for manufacturing firms to more accurately assess their production needs and better match capabilities with customer demands. The process is heavily reliant on data from virtually every department within the organization. It uses this information to produce a more complete understanding of the environment in which the company operates. As with any data intensive process, the right tools are required to get the most out of S&OP. For many manufacturing companies, that tool tends to be a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system. These systems are designed to better manage data and break down departmental silos to provide a complete understanding of a company’s operations. 

If you’re ready to take the next step in analyzing and planning your production processes, start with the right tool for the job. Sign up for Aligni MRP today.