End-to-End Supply Chain Leadership & Transformation
Planning & S&OP
Good planning is about understanding what the business needs to achieve — and whether the supply chain can actually deliver it.
HMS helps manufacturing businesses develop practical planning processes that connect demand, supply, capacity, production and inventory.
The objective isn't simply to produce another forecast or another planning report.
It's to give the business better visibility of what is likely to happen, what could happen and what decisions need to be made.
Planning should look forward — not just explain what happened.
Planning can easily become a cycle of reacting to yesterday's problems.
A production schedule changes.
Materials are expedited.
Customer orders are prioritised.
Inventory is moved around.
The forecast is adjusted.
Then everyone starts planning again.
But effective planning should provide the business with forward visibility.
It should help answer questions such as:
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What demand are we expecting?
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What do we need to supply?
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Do we have the capacity to make it?
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Do we have the materials to support it?
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Where are the constraints?
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What inventory will we need?
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What decisions need to be made now rather than later?
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The further ahead the business can understand these questions, the more options it has.
Planning is about creating time to make decisions before they become problems.
S&OP isn't just a meeting.
Sales & Operations Planning can easily become a monthly meeting where different functions present their numbers.
That's not the purpose.
S&OP should connect Demand → Supply → Capacity → Inventory → Business requirements, with the focus on decisions rather than simply reviewing information.
Demand → Supply → Capacity → Inventory → Business requirements
The process should help management understand where the plan is achievable, where there are constraints and where decisions or trade-offs are required.
My experience includes designing and implementing structured monthly S&OP processes, including relevant KPIs and supporting demand forecasting solutions.
The important part isn't the meeting itself.
It's the decisions that come from it.
What does a practical S&OP process look like?
A good S&OP process creates a structured flow from demand through supply to business decisions.
For one customer, Adrian designed and implemented a five-stage monthly S&OP cycle:
1. Demand Maintenance
Maintain the forward demand position, incorporating changes to the underlying demand plan and ensuring the information is ready for review.
2. Demand Review
Review the demand position, including changes, exceptions and relevant commercial information, to establish an agreed view of future demand.
3. Supply Review
Test the demand position against the ability of the supply chain to deliver it, considering areas such as materials, inventory, production capacity and other operational constraints.
4. Pre-S&OP
Bring the demand and supply positions together, identify significant exceptions and risks, and develop recommendations where decisions or action are required.
5. Executive S&OP
Provide the leadership team with the information and recommendations needed to agree tactical and strategic actions.
Demand → Supply → Exceptions → Decisions → Action
The important part isn't simply holding the meetings. It's creating a consistent process that gets the right information to the right people at the right stage, so that issues can be understood and decisions made before they become operational problems.
S&OP is not about producing another set of numbers. It's about creating a structured process for understanding what the business needs to achieve, what the supply chain can deliver, and what decisions need to be made.
Connecting demand with what the business can actually supply
One of the biggest challenges in planning is the gap between what the business wants to sell and what it can realistically supply.
A demand plan can show growth.
But can production support it?
Can suppliers provide the materials?
Is there enough labour?
Are the machines capable of producing the required volume?
Will inventory remain within acceptable limits?
These questions need to be considered together.
I've developed and implemented planning processes covering demand forecasting, rough-cut capacity planning, master production scheduling, MRP and production scheduling.
That end-to-end connection is important.
A plan isn't useful simply because it looks achievable on paper.
From long-term visibility to today's production schedule.
Planning needs different levels of detail.
A business may need:
Long-term visibility
Understanding anticipated demand, capacity requirements, material requirements and potential constraints far enough ahead to make meaningful decisions.
Mid-term planning
Turning that visibility into realistic supply plans, capacity requirements, purchasing requirements and inventory decisions.
Short-term scheduling
Translating the plan into a production schedule that reflects actual capacity, materials, labour and operational constraints.
These levels need to connect.
A long-term plan that doesn't reflect operational reality won't help the production team.
And a production schedule that ignores what is coming further down the road simply creates tomorrow's problem.
Production planning and capacity.
Production capacity isn't simply the number of hours available.
The practical capacity of a manufacturing operation can be affected by:
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Equipment constraints
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Labour availability
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Product mix
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Changeover requirements
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Material availability
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Production rates
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Maintenance
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Existing commitments
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Operational priorities
I've developed capacity-constrained production planning and finite-capacity scheduling solutions to provide forward visibility of labour and equipment constraints. In one recent assignment, implementing a finite-capacity scheduling solution contributed to a 15 percentage-point improvement in customer service level.
The purpose of capacity planning isn't to produce a more complicated spreadsheet.
It's to make the constraints visible before they become customer problems.
Planning, MRP and the ERP system.
ERP and MRP systems can provide powerful planning capabilities.
But the system is only as useful as the processes, parameters and data supporting it.
I've worked with ERP and MRP environments across a range of manufacturing businesses, including developing planning processes, reviewing system configuration and improving master data.
The question shouldn't always be:
“What does the system tell us?”
It should first be:
“Does the planning process make sense?”
Then the system can support it.
What can HMS help with?
Planning and S&OP support can include:
Demand & Supply Planning
Developing processes that connect expected demand with realistic supply requirements.
S&OP
Designing or restructuring the S&OP process, including appropriate measures, information and management reviews.
Capacity Planning
Creating forward visibility of production capacity, labour and equipment constraints.
Production Planning & Scheduling
Developing practical planning and scheduling processes that reflect operational reality.
MRP
Reviewing MRP processes, parameters, data and system usage to improve material planning.
Planning Systems
Developing practical planning solutions using existing ERP/MRP systems, specialist software or Excel where appropriate.
Planning Processes & Capability
Developing processes, SOPs and training so that planning capability remains within the business.
When might your planning process need attention?
You may recognise some of these:
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Planners spend most of their time reacting to problems.
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Production schedules change constantly.
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Purchasing is driven by expediting rather than forward requirements.
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Capacity constraints only become visible when they are already causing problems.
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S&OP takes place every month but doesn't lead to meaningful decisions.
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MRP generates recommendations that planners don't trust.
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Different functions are working to different versions of the plan.
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The business has limited visibility beyond the next few weeks.
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Forecasts exist but aren't being translated into useful supply decisions.
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Planning processes have grown around the ERP system rather than around how the business needs to operate.
If several of these sound familiar, the issue may not be that the business needs more planning.
It may need better-connected planning.
Practical planning. Better visibility. Better decisions.
Good planning doesn't eliminate uncertainty.
It gives the business more time to understand it and make decisions about it.
My approach is to connect the different planning horizons and functions so that the business can see what is coming, understand its options and act before problems become urgent.
Understand the demand.
Understand the supply.
Understand the constraints.
Make the decisions.
Have a planning or S&OP challenge you'd like to understand?
Whether you are developing a planning process, struggling with S&OP, reviewing production capacity or simply need better forward visibility, the first step is usually understanding what is happening today.
Let's have a conversation.
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