Guiding Principles for successful S&OP implementation

1. Stakeholder commitment – it is important that stakeholders across the business are engaged and educated to understand the whole process. 2. One set of numbers – all the different numbers of sales, marketing etc. in one set of numbers. 3. Accountability and decision making – as the size of the organization increases so does the complexity of decision making. It is crucial to define in detail during the design phase what will be the participants role and responsibility in each meeting. 4. Alignment of business objectives – effective S&OP solutions have to align to KPIs that drive the best result for a company as a whole. 5. Appropriate time horizon – when things gowrong, the temptation is to micro-manage the crisis rather than to plan for the future. Moving the conversation into the future will help managers to reach best for business solutions, and therefore do less fire fighting on a daily basis. 6. Understanding the benefits of S&OP – a sound S&OP process recognises imperfections on a regular basis and re-optimise plans across the supply chain. Also  customers should benefit from better customer service and more efficient response.