Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) Support

Consensus demand is a negotiation, not a forecast

• Sales overrides statistical forecasts without providing rationale or accountability
• Forecast accuracy isn't tracked, so bias and gaming go unchecked
• Demand planning team is marginalized, reducing to data entry role
• Promotional and new product assumptions aren't separated from baseline demand
• No clear ownership when consensus demand is wrong

Data integration is manual and error-prone

• Demand, supply, and financial plans live in separate systems and spreadsheets
• Reconciliation between systems requires manual effort and delays the cycle
• Version control is weak, so teams work from different numbers
• Actuals vs. plan comparisons lag by weeks, limiting corrective action
• Technology exists but isn't integrated, so Excel remains the system of record

Scenario planning is superficial or missing

• Only one plan is presented, limiting strategic discussion
• Upside and downside scenarios aren't quantified or stress-tested
• Risk mitigation strategies aren't developed in advance of problems
• What-if analysis is too slow, so decisions are made without modeling
• Financial impact of supply chain decisions isn't visible in the S&OP cycle

Executive S&OP meetings are status updates, not decision forums

• Meetings focus on reporting past performance, not resolving future gaps
• Decisions that require executive trade-offs are escalated but not resolved
• Action items from previous cycles aren't tracked or closed
• Meeting attendance and engagement decline over time
• Pre-work isn't completed, so meetings start from scratch each cycle

Supply response capabilities aren't transparent

• Supply planning team can't articulate constraints clearly to demand side
• Lead times and capacity limits are presented as fixed when they're negotiable
• Cost implications of demand changes aren't quantified in real time
• Procurement, production, and logistics don't speak with one voice
• Supply constraints discovered late because visibility is poor

Organizational silos prevent true alignment

• Functional leaders prioritize their own metrics over enterprise outcomes
• Incentive structures don't reward S&OP collaboration or plan adherence
• Pre-S&OP meetings (demand review, supply review) don't surface issues early
• Finance isn't engaged until problems are already locked in
• No clear S&OP process owner with authority to drive accountability

Process discipline fades without reinforcement

• Meeting cadence slips or gets canceled when other priorities emerge
• Pre-work quality declines, forcing meetings to become working sessions
• Decision documentation and action tracking stop happening
• Process owner lacks authority or bandwidth to maintain rigor

Technology enablement stalls after initial launch

• S&OP platform capabilities aren't fully adopted or understood
• Integration roadmap stalls, leaving manual data consolidation in place
• Advanced features like scenario planning and what-if analysis go unused
• Teams revert to spreadsheets because the platform feels slower

Metrics and accountability disappear

• Forecast accuracy tracking stops, removing pressure to improve
• Plan vs. actuals reviews become anecdotal instead of data-driven
• No consequences for missing commitments made in S&OP
• Continuous improvement mindset is lost as the process becomes routine

Historical plans and forecasts aren't preserved

• Past consensus demand and supply plans are lost during platform transitions
• Forecast accuracy baselines can't be established without history
• Seasonal patterns and trend analysis require multi-year history that's missing
• Decision rationale and scenario analysis from past cycles aren't accessible

Product and customer hierarchies don't map cleanly

• Legacy planning hierarchies don't align with new system structures
• Product families and customer groupings need to be rebuilt from scratch
• Aggregation levels for S&OP discussions are lost or inconsistent
• Historical comparisons become impossible due to structural changes

Financial integration breaks during transition

• Revenue and margin calculations don't match financial system definitions
• Budget vs. plan reconciliation requires manual mapping
• Currency conversions and transfer pricing logic are misconfigured
• Financial actuals lag or don't sync with S&OP planning cycles

Planning teams resist change and cling to legacy methods

• Excel-based processes are familiar and feel faster than new platforms
• Planners fear losing control or visibility during the transition
• Training is rushed or inadequate, leaving teams unprepared
• Champions who drove the change move on, leaving adoption to struggle

Parallel planning creates confusion and mistrust

• Some teams use legacy, some use new system, with conflicting outputs
• Executives don't know which numbers to trust or act on
• Reconciliation between systems consumes time that should be spent planning
• Decision velocity slows as teams wait for alignment across platforms

Legacy decommissioning loses institutional knowledge

• Planning assumptions and scenario rationale aren't documented in the new system
• Custom reports and analyses that executives relied on disappear
• Access to historical plans for compliance or audit is cut off too soon
• Process owner transitions happen during the switch, creating continuity gaps

S&OP Process Design and Launch

Meeting cadence and structure, roles and responsibilities, decision rights, KPI framework, scenario planning methodology, technology enablement strategy, and change management.

S&OP Maturity Assessment and Improvement

Current state evaluation, gap analysis, process optimization, data integration roadmap, executive engagement strategy, and continuous improvement plan.

Technology Platform Enablement

S&OP platform selection, integration design, scenario modeling setup, workflow automation, reporting and analytics, and user training.

Program Recovery and Remediation

For S&OP programs that have lost momentum or executive support. Root-cause assessment, process reset, stakeholder re-engagement, quick wins identification, and sustained improvement execution.

Legacy Replacement and System Sunset

Controlled migration from spreadsheet-based or legacy S&OP to modern platforms. Parallel planning governance, change management, training, and clean decommissioning with history preservation.