Is your Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process mature enough to generate a solid tactical plan? Or, are short-term issues and operational details forcing you constantly fight fires and attend to problems caused by deviations between your S&OP plan and what should be executed?
The concept of “Sales and Operations Execution” or “S&OE” is not new. It came about since many companies that have implemented an S&OP process for planning and decision-making at a tactical level still struggle to make those plans meaningful and drive operational planning within a shorter horizon (i.e., the horizon that falls between tactical/operational planning and execution).
The struggle stems from neither S&OP nor operational planning being designed to process relevant information, manage issues, or take required actions in this in-between horizon.
By introducing S&OE, you will remove the chains from S&OP and allow the process to concentrate on its primary task—providing a tactical plan of quality that bridges tactical and operational levels with a process specifically designed for that purpose.
The purpose of S&OE is to eliminate this disconnect. S&OE complements the existing planning process structure and brings discipline to information exchange and decision-making to bridge S&OP and operations.
