Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a methodology that provides a framework for organisations to regularly plan and review their demand, supply and inventory levels. It helps to improve productivity and customer satisfaction. Meaning of reconciliation The word ‘reconciliation’ literally means ‘the process of making consistence or compatible’. In accounting, it means comparing two accounts…
What is Inventory Management?
Inventory Management refers to a process that deals with supply chain management, inventory control and demand forecasting. It is used for efficiently managing the regular flow of units into and out of a standing inventory. It is all about knowing what organisations have, where it’s stocked and how much they will need. Instruments of Inventory…
Decision Phases in Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a management practice that governs the movement of goods and services inside or outside the organisation. Effective SCM needs various decisions regarding the flow of information, products, and finances. SCM includes all methods that convert raw materials into finished goods, it comprises the designing, planning, executing, controlling and monitoring of…
Supply Planning in Sales & Operations Planning
What is Supply Planning? Supply Planning is one of the most crucial steps in Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and supply chain management. It aims at achieving a plan that efficiently fulfils the demand for any product or service. Procurement, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and logistics are the constituent parts of supply planning. Supply and demand…
Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)
The journey of business planning from ‘production planning’ to ‘Integrated Business Planning (IBP)’ involved multiple changes in methodologies, processes and decision-making frameworks. Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is one of the intermediate stages in this journey, while a collaborative IBP is a final stage (at least till now). IBP and S&OP are neither exactly like…
Demand Planning in Sales and Operations Planning
Demand planning (DP) in Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is the process of analysing previous trends and forecasting the demand for goods or services in the near future, it helps in producing and delivering goods or services more efficiently to the satisfaction of customers. DP and S&OP help in planning day to day functions that…
What do you need for successful IBP implementation?
Integrated Business Planning (IBP) is a process that helps organisations achieve process excellence by identifying the gap between business targets and strategy (top-down) and the most likely outcomes (bottom-up). IBP is a cyclic monthly process that enables collaborative business planning and departmental alignment through cross-functional inputs, this ensures a higher degree of coordination to improve…
Assumptions and constraints in project management
Every project has certain assumptions and constraints that need to be considered while planning, these are inputs for many processes and they need to be identified and defined at the start. Assumptions Assumptions are the events or circumstances that are expected during a project’s lifecycle. For example, at the beginning of any project, we assume…
Sales and Operations Planning
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a business management process where organisations make efforts to balance demand and supply to improve inventory management. S&OP integrates sales, operations and finance to enable quick decision making and efficient business planning. Demand forecasting is one of the most crucial steps in S&OP. When an organisation understands the demand…