According to industry research, most S&OP users cannot create a consistently achievable S&OP plan. A Supply Chain Insights survey revealed that only 30 percent of manufacturers are “nearly always” or “most of the time” able to effectively tie S&OP planning to execution. Gartner confirms that “The No.1 challenge among manufacturing companies is connecting the sales and operations plan (S&OP) to the operational plan/execution.”
This critical gap often relegates S&OP to a passive planning exercise, rather than actively connecting to results to real business outcomes. In monthly S&OP meetings, managers make strategic decisions such as increasing revenue or adding new products that don’t always translate into operational plans that can be practically executed downstream. This shouldn’t be too surprising because companies usually have separate planning and operations models that do not map to each other. They plan with one and execute with the other.
Connecting S&OP to
Operational Planning/Execution
ToolsGroup’s S&OP solves this challenge by employing the same data model at both levels – tactical and operational planning. It creates a single integrated data model with one version of the truth that’s continuously synchronized through perfect mapping. This allows you to push aggregate S&OP changes down—giving you the right level of detail for operational execution. It also ensures the latest operational updates are available for tactical decision making. With ToolsGroup you get what you plan.
