Sales And Operations Lanning (S&OP) Mindsets

SALES AND OPERATIONS PLANNING (S&OP) MINDSETS By Larry Lapide (This is an ongoing column in The Journal, which is intended to give a brief view on a potential topic of interest to practitioners of business forecasting. Suggestions on topics that you would like to see covered should be sent via email to llapide@mit.edu.) I I have been writing and talking about Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) for the past 10 years, so it will come as no surprise when I say that I believe that the S&OPprocess is one of the most crucial practices for business success. What may come as a surprise are the reasons why I have focused so much on this process rather than other types of Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes. The first (no surprise) reason is that the S&OP process aims to optimally match supply and demand from a planning perspective; such is one of the noblest goals of any supply chain management (SCM) organization—essentially part of its real purpose in life. The second reason involves the fact that it is the most prevalent cross-functional process that bridges a team of customer- facing managers from Sales, Marketing, and Customer Services with supply- facing managers from ...