Sales & Operations Planning

What Are the Pitfalls of Ineffective Sales & Operations Planning?

Demand & supply gap

Without effective S&OP, businesses lack the capability to accurately forecast future demand, review inventory levels, assess production capacity, and make decisions to balance demand and supply.

Tied up working capital

Inaccurate demand forecasting often results in excess inventory levels. Working capital tied up in managing excess inventory limits financial flexibility and creates financial obligations.

Lack of quick response to vulnerabilities

Traditional S&OP processes should focus on mid-term operations. However, if not backed by effective Sales & Operations execution, businesses lack the readiness to respond quickly and accurately to supply chain disruptions.

Ineffective cross-functional collaboration

Siloed functions, conflicting information due to fragmented systems and a missing “single source of truth” limit the visibility between the company and the various stakeholders, resulting in misalignment and inefficiencies in demand and supply planning.

Achieve Synergy Across Your Supply Chain with the AIO Platform

The AIO Platform facilitates the coordination and synchronization of operations between various departments, processes and stakeholders to ensure that the company's demand and supply plans are in harmony.

Balance the demand & supply

Use near-real-time data to gain visibility across your supply chain. Ensure that demand and supply are balanced effectively, minimizing the risk of excess inventory and stockouts, and improving the service levels and financial performance.

Free up working capital

Optimize your inventory across multiple echelons and achieve a balance between service levels, customer demands and bound capital. Generate ML-based forecast models for accurate predictions of future demands and informed decision-making.

Improve supply chain strategy

Evaluate different strategies through scenario simulations in both tactical and strategic horizons. Choose the S&OP strategy that best aligns with your business goals after weighing the trade-offs.

Achieve cross-functional collaboration

Streamline S&OP with efficient workflow management. Plan, schedule, and execute tasks seamlessly. Keep stakeholders informed and connected through a single source of truth for proactive decision-making, end-to-end visibility and improved business efficiency.

Why Businesses Trust aioneers for Effective Sales & Operations Planning

Single point of truth for cross functional collaboration

Balanced demand & supply with proven service level improvements

10% to 40% stock loss reduction

Up to 20 pp. improved forecast accuracy

One of the Oldest Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Europe Enhances Its Sales & Operations Planning Processes with the AIO Platform

This prominent pharmaceutical manufacturer has a global footprint in over 60 countries worldwide. Following the integration of multiple business units into a cohesive entity, the company encountered various challenges within its supply chain management environment, specifically in Sales & Operations Planning, Supply Planning and Demand Planning. With the AIO Platform, the globally renowned company was able to enhance its supply chain visibility and S&OP processes, thereby improving its demand and supply alignment.

Challenges

Missing end-to-end supply chain visibility
Heterogenous information flow across business units
High levels of dead stock leading to high scrapping costs
Disrupted production schedule due to unplanned downtimes
Erratic delivery reliability leading to lowered service levels

Solution

Supply chain alignment with strategic business goals by deriving a supply chain target system using SCOR framework
In-depth analysis on current processes & tools to gain insights on improvement areas
Effective supply chain segmentation strategy to optimize planning processes
Data-driven recommendations to define, measure and track KPIs
Comprehensive dashboards for end-to-end visibility and decision-making support

Ready-to-use AIO Platform for S&OP within 3 months

Improved cross-functional collaboration due to global roll-out of S&OP process

Reduction of forecast bias by 20% 

Reduction of total inventory position by 29%