Guideposts, Directions, and Scenarios: Connecting S&OP to Detailed Planning

Guideposts, Directions, and Scenarios: Connecting S&OP to Detailed Planning By Patrick Bower ave you ever had that moment on a highway where you felt lost or anxious after missing your turnoff, waiting for the next road sign to appear so that you could get your bearings? This has happened to me countless times—even in this GPS age. Road signs are the guideposts for the paths I travel. They help me to know whether I’m on course, or in need of redirection. By definition, guideposts are a post or sign on the roadside, offering guidance and direction to travelers. In common parlance they are anything serving as a guide or guideline. This article will highlight the expression guidepost as it relates to the S&OP process. S&OP processes generate an agreed plan. That agreed plan is typically a combination of an approved forecast, a financial plan, and a supply plan. Taken at face value, this would seem to be a great outcome, since many organizations can’t even reach agree­ment on a plan. However, in order to convert these aggregated strategic plans into something executable, a best-practice S&OP process needs to define and provide appropriate and meaningful guideposts, targets, and ...