Sales and operations planning (S&OP) was created way back in the 1980s. But it is relevant to today’s world of supply chain disruptions and uncertainty?
S&OP has long served as an effective means of balancing supply and demand through integrating multiple functions of the business, with the goal of maintaining visibility into ever-changing customer demand. But traditional S&OP cycles, carried out monthly or quarterly, seem insufficient to deal with the rapid changes in the market that businesses are seeing today. So is it time to scrap the whole concept?
Far from it — S&OP remains a valuable tool for supply chains, but it needs to be rethought for our times. On an episode of the SupplyChainBrain podcast, we learn how that might be accomplished, with insights from Lachelle Buchanan, vice president of product marketing with Logility. She explains how S&OP can be adapted to account for shrinking planning horizons, and the need for scenario planning and cross-functional collaboration. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain.
The importance of predictable financials remains just as, if not more, significant today as it did 35 years ago. In the contemporary sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, a holistic approach involving people, process, and technology is employed to develop a business plan that can deliver the predictable financial outcomes sought by executives.
Discover more about sales and operations planning software here.
