ABSTRACT
Sales and operations planning (S&OP) has entered the planning picture and has become a staple of supply chain efforts in many companies. S&OP's purpose was to generate a single, integrated plan created and monitored frequently, and revised based on actual conditions and evidence of shifts in market and customer demand. The actual schedules sent forward, or amended in midstream, would be based on timely and accurate evaluations of data. With schedules better linked to real conditions and connected tightly to business objectives, performance to plan is more likely to occur.
