What Is Sales and Operations Planning?

By integrating the operational areas of the business (e.g., sales, marketing, procurement, manufacturing, etc.), Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) ensures monthly alignment with the enterprise’s supply, demand, and finance planning needs. Effective and efficient supply chain management relies on a well-orchestrated and executed S&OP process.

Execute S&OP with SAP Integrated Business Planning

SAP provides S&OP planning as part of SAP Integrated Business Planning to drive revenue growth, reduce inventory carrying costs, and increase productivity. Key capabilities include:

What Is Sales and Operations Planning?

By integrating the operational areas of the business (e.g., sales, marketing, procurement, manufacturing, etc.), Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) ensures monthly alignment with the enterprise’s supply, demand, and finance planning needs. Effective and efficient supply chain management relies on a well-orchestrated and executed S&OP process.

Execute S&OP with SAP Integrated Business Planning

SAP provides S&OP planning as part of SAP Integrated Business Planning to drive revenue growth, reduce inventory carrying costs, and increase productivity. Key capabilities include:

• Enable real-time planning
• Simulate and compare scenarios
• Collaborate across departments
• Monitor performance and future alignment

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders

• Operational Excellence: Achieving S&OP Success. Watch this on-demand webinar to take your S&OP process to the next level. Often, companies lack end-to-end supply chain integration because of functional silos and poor executive support within their current S&OP process. Alex Kahsar, Senior Solution Advisor for GIB USA, leads the discussion to showcase the benefits of an S&OP process that is capable of operating inside a core SAP ERP system, while also simplifying and optimizing supply chain execution. Too often, SAP users resort to a patchwork of disparate solutions to solve various use cases, creating complex, brittle connections, which prevent organizations from adapting to future business changes.
• 5 Steps of S&OP to Achieve an Integrated Business Plan. In this article, learn the framework and five essential steps of the S&OP process: 1) data gathering, 2) demand planning, 3) supply planning, 4) pre-S&OP meeting, and 5) executive S&OP. Venkata Ramana Nethi, CSCP, CPIM, MGR IT Build-Run Operations & Quality, Schlumberger, writes that the “S&OP concept and methodology, regardless of industry, has been around since the 1980s; however, with new advances in technology it has become more transparent and agile, adopting and delivering nearly accurate results in dynamic environments to achieve balance.”
• 7 Questions to Guide You on Your S&OP Transformation. In this blog post, explore a series of seven questions that can help business stakeholders uncover the root causes of the issues in an S&OP strategy and determine ways to fix them. By answering these questions carefully and in order, an organization can craft an effective S&OP strategy.

Vendors in the S&OP space include: Innovation Enterprise and OpsVeda.