Sales and Operations Planning

Sales and Operations Planning

As the CEO, I would begin by holding a meeting between all the stakeholders of the company. The meeting would involve employees, customers, shareholders, human resource managers, marketing offices, operation manager and product management, and sales department. The objective of the meeting would conduct a product review whereby the effect of the new status of the product to supply and demand addressed. It would provide essential information to demand-side professionals. Secondly, I would do demand planning, whereby demand review meetings conducted. It would involve product and brand management team, marketing and sales management team, and other top management officials. In this phase, strategies to increase the demand for the new product as addressed, and the effects of the new product brand in the target market discussed (Anaplan, 2018). Of interest at the demand planning stage is to identify the expected demand shifts either positively or negatively. After demand planning, I will focus on supply planning. Conducting review meetings is essential at this stage. The forecast demand shift is aligned with the supply chain to ensure a constant supply of the reviewed product.

When the supply chain considered, the next step would be to conduct a financial review. Analysis of the demand plan provided in monetary terms, and the overall impact on financial output reviewed. In this case, projections supplied in terms of revenues, profits, cash flows, and alternative capital investments. A financial review is conducted before the pre-meeting between demand, supply, and business professionals. The pre-meeting involves analysis of data and primary goal of sales and operations executive preceding meeting. As the CEO, I will ensure that the pre-meeting helps in identifying areas that present contentious issues and those that can be handled without executive involvement. To finalize the process, I will organize for executive sales and operations meeting that would involve planning officers.  I will present as the CEO, together with demand and supply managers, financial executives, and financial managers. I will review financial reports, demand and supply reports, and planning objectives. In this final stage, executives are informed whether the plans are on a budget, on schedule, and the scope.

Response to Jacqueline W

I agree with Jacqueline’s process of performing sales and operations planning.  She begins by engaging the company leaders in every functional unit, and this is a vital part of the process. Jacqueline involves organization employees at the very first stage, which is impressive. Besides, her plan includes all the processes that we learned in the course, such as product review, demand and supply planning, financial reviews, pre-meeting, and executive meeting. By conducting all the process effectively, Jacqueline will realize success in the entire process. Further, Jacqueline’s process are well defined, explained, and objective highlighted, and this makes the whole process realistic, and that is why I strongly support her process.

Respond to Tara W.

I agree with Tara’s processes because they are comprehensively analyzed. Each step is explained in terms of objectives and scope. Tara’s plan entails all the basic steps that should be followed by conducting sales and operations planning. Of interest is how Tara, as the CEO, will handle miscommunications in the process. I think that as the CEO, Tara can delegate communication duties to junior employees or the communication department. I like the last step of reviewing inventories and operations to ensure everything runs smoothly. Besides, the review would be carried out every month, implying that any process failure can be revealed at the early stages. It is a unique process that can result in successes.

References

Anaplan. (2018, 30 October). What is Sales and Operations Planning? (S&OP Ultimate Guide). Retrieved from Anaplan: https://www.anaplan.com/blog/sales-operations-planning-sop-guide/