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SALES AND OPERATIONS PLANNING CONSULTING

Get results with sales and operations planning consulting.

Today’s consumer expects a wide assortment of high-quality products delivered quickly and inexpensively. Demand and supply must align throughout the supply chain to drive towards an integrated business plan (IBP). This can be accomplished through sales and operations planning (S&OP).

An sales and operations planning consultant works on a sales inventory operations SOP process..

Leverage sales operations and planning to balance supply with customer demand.

Our experienced S&OP planning consultants focus on how to best synchronize supply with demand to meet service and profitability expectations, while improving commitment to customers and holding suppliers accountable. enVista helps customers bridge the gap between the traditional approach of doing manufacturing planning or sales forecasting as an exercise compared to driving alignment between the sales team, marketing, purchasing, lean manufacturing and logistics to ensure all functions are working under the same expectations towards the same goal.

We help your supply chain management team create a supply chain assessment and address any challenges while streamlining the planning process.

Sales and Operations Planning Consulting

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Our sales and operation planning consultants help you clearly identify and communicate customer fulfillment objectives and expectations, develop metrics across all functional teams that are all driving towards high level service KPI and heavily focus on KPI with root cause investigation and projects to correct.

Optimized Production and Inventory Costs

Our S&OP management consultants will provide clear understanding of inventory required to service end demand and the variability of that demand, use SKU-based analysis and a “plan for every part” approach, identifying production needed to meet the inventory requirements.

Synchronization Between Departments

This is critical for all teams to work towards the same objectives and at the same pace. For example, the supply team cannot be focused on adding inventory while inventory is planning to reduce space.

Correct Resources

Successful S&OP requires teams working collaboratively, so team-based skills are critical. We will help enable your associates to become detail-oriented and think “big picture” to drive actions through influencing.

Better Accountability

We will conduct operational assessments to help your organization identify key performance metrics for all functional metrics, create policy documents to guide the process and develop complete RACI chart.

Data Driven and Analytical

We will utilize deep analytics to identify trends, underperformance, overperformance and other performance issues. This type of data can then be utilized to create potential solutions, e.g., future fill rate expectations, future labor requirements and more.

Planning as a Service

Planning as a service empowers businesses with expert assistance in strategic planning and decision-making. By outsourcing their planning functions to our specialized consultants, organizations can leverage our deep knowledge and experience in sales and operations planning. Our consultants understand industry best practices and excel at tailoring planning solutions to meet the unique needs and goals of each client.

Planning as a service offers scalability, enabling businesses to access planning expertise on demand, without the burden of maintaining an in-house planning team. This flexibility allows organizations to swiftly adapt to changing market conditions and seize opportunities. With the support of our planning experts and advanced analytical tools, businesses can streamline their operations, optimize processes, and enhance accuracy in areas such as demand forecasting, inventory management and resource allocation.

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Data Sheet

S&OP

enVista can help you leverage S&OP to balance supply with customer demand. Contact us today to discuss your company’s needs.

View Data Sheet

Sales and Operations Planning Consulting FAQs

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is a part of supply chain planning where a business achieves long-term synchronization across every stage of the supply chain. It utilizes data from all of a company’s key functional areas, including manufacturing, marketing, sales, distribution and operations and finance. The two goals of sales and operations planning consulting are to align business objectives across departments and to match consumer demand with supply from manufacturers. This is accomplished through careful project management and execution across business departments to provide a holistic approach to supply chain planning and operations.

S&OP’s virtue lies largely in its holistic approach. The overarching view helps organize business operations across the board, affecting almost every piece of an organization. For example, synchronization between departments can reduce the time needed to fulfill an order, allowing it to arrive faster and improve overall customer satisfaction. Cutting inventory costs by gaining a better view of supply and demand similarly can cut costs overall, helping a business become more profitable and efficient. In addition to increasing sales, some of the most common benefits of sales and operations planning include:

  • Easier to understand and present data to share with stakeholders
  • Improved levels of customer service
  • Better product revenues
  • Increased profitability
  • Reduced lead times
  • Lowered inventory
  • Faster responsiveness
  • Top-down control from management
  • Better demand and supply forecast accuracy

The S&OP process can vary from organization to organization, as each company’s departments and goals will be slightly different. However, there are a few common steps that most planners tend to implement, as presented by Thomas Wallace and Robert Stahl.

  1. Data gathering: Information is collected on past sales and trends and used to create forecasts.
  2. Demand planning: This step includes checking forecasts, accounting for possible variability, revising customer services policy, tracking sources of demand, and creating promotion plans.
  3. Supply planning: The company’s ability to meet current and future demand is assessed. This is done by reviewing available inventory and capacity and then scheduling future operations.
  4. Plan reconciliation: Supply and demand plans are measured against the organization’s financial considerations.
  5. Finalize and present the S&OP: The plan is finalized and is ready to present to the organization and shareholders.

Since S&OP is a complicated collaborative process that spans multiple areas of an organization, it can have some challenges. The most common challenges include:

  • Creating accurate and reliable reporting on supply and demand to inform company decisions
  • Keeping track of and presenting decision criteria in a way that explains impact on KPIs such as supply chain costs, customer service, etc.
  • Presenting changes in supply and demand to gain managerial plan approval
  • Supply chain planning for introducing new products, phasing out current products or acquiring new products/product lines through merger and acquisition
  • Translating large sets of data into information that can be used to make actionable, data-driven decisions

A manufacturer or distributor’s ultimate formula for success is making sure customers have access to items, whenever and wherever they want them. Current logistics and technology capabilities make successful sales and operations planning more attainable than ever before. The question is, at what cost and rate of return?

enVista provides manufacturers and distributors the answers to these questions by helping them attain significant savings, inventory reductions and efficiencies through the optimization of their supply chain networks.

Our sales and operations planning consultants are demand and supply planning experts. We hold suppliers accountable to help our clients create business transformation and drive profits with supply chain and S&OP best practices. 

Companies that integrate sales and operations planning (S&OP) into their daily planning and execution are equipped to address order forecast anomalies as well as production and capacity limitations. This places your organization ahead of the competition, even in unfavorable circumstances.

These same companies may not always fulfill 100 percent of the ordered quantity as requested, but they make accurate promises to their customers based upon customer priority, profit margin and supplier capacity, and they strive for continuous improvement.

Our sales and operations planning process will enable your company to:

  • -Optimize production and inventory costs through supply chain optimization
  • -Synchronize between departments
  • -Create supply and demand plans to increase customer satisfaction 
  • -Lower costs by applying the correct resources in order to meet demand
  • -Develop better accountability and teamwork by decreasing functional boundaries within your organization

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