With a unified S&OP, you can continuously refine and synchronise all of your manufacturing and distribution activity, and respond more strategically to market or internal changes. It bridges that gap between the annual budget process and Material Requirements Planning (MRP).
For example, if you experience a seasonal sales spike, you may have capacity issues, so you need to preload inventories. The S&OP process would determine when and how much to order.
Sales and operations planning improves the integration of your strategies, capabilities and goals across sales, marketing, operations, research and development, finance and other departments. S&OP processes enable companies to:
- Improve cross-functional planning
- Ensure that operational plans meet strategy objectives
- Resolve demand vs. supply tradeoffs
- Evaluate resource constraints to validate production plans
- Update production, financial and sales plans on a continuous basis
- Enhance team collaboration