Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is the set of business processes and supporting technologies that enable an enterprise to effectively respond to demand and supply variability with timely decisions regarding the right supply, demand, and manufactured product mix.
Once S&OP planning is completed, the cross-functional team adjourns, and each group does its best to optimize the execution (S&OE) part of the process they own. If no variations ever occurred during the operations period, then this would work perfectly every time. However, exceptions related to fluctuations in demand, shortages, delays, and disruptions can reveal the process weak points of your supply chain and these exceptions are all too common.
Sales Operations Planning & Execution Challenges
Manual Collaboration
Manual, email-based collaborative communication between all functional operational silos both inside and outside the enterprise means long process cycles
Poor Visibility
Gaining a cross-company insight into the operating processes of different departments on a timelier and more granular basis is difficult
Planning Buffers
Without a good way to get aligned, everyone adds buffers to their plans to compensate which costs everyone revenue and margin
