Demand Planning Vs S&OP Process Flow

When people talk about Sales and Operations Planning, there is a grey area. In some of our diagnostic engagements I have noticed that people describe the Demand Consensus process but term it as S&OP.

Alternatively, they talk about a Supply Response to the Sales Forecast and call it S&OP. Regardless they are correct about their process that needs a transformation into an effective Demand-Supply balancing process that touches both demand and supply.

Valtitude has helped our clients in two major areas of SCM Process transformation -

Demand Consensus dives into the details of demand generation, information aggregation, review and vetting and finally agreement on an unconstrained plan. This is depicted by the first line in the chart.

S&OP Readiness

S&OP - Starts with the Demand Consensus, Supply Response to the Demand Plan, and the Gap fill process where two types of gaps are addressed.

Gap - Demand vs. supply

Gap - Feasible forecast vs. the Operating plan

A step by step approach to S&OP is available at here