Supporting sales and operations planning through finanace involvement

Abstract

Research objectives The main objective of the research was to analyse how Finance can support sales and operations planning (S&OP). To support analysis of the main objective particular focus was placed on assessing how sales and operations planning can be coordinated, how financial forecasting can be integrated with S&OP and how performance measures can be utilized in S&OP.

Sources Theoretic part of the thesis comprises wide array of journals, articles, books and research regarding S&OP, financial forecasting and performance measurement. On the other hand, empiric data was gathered through conducting interviews at five manufacturing companies.

Research method The research was carried out as a descriptive and normative field study by interviewing ten (10) representatives from five (5) manufacturing companies. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and later validated with the interviewees. The research included analysing current practices and formulating improvement suggestions for each company by comparing the findings to theories. In addition, a comparative analysis of the identified practices was conducted.

Results The research concluded that S&OP can be an effective way of coordinating functional planning activities and to support development of a common company- wide plan. It also concluded that Finance can support it by preparing financial forecasts in direct linkage to sales and operations plans as well as by establishing a S&OP scorecard and managing strategic measurement. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the companies resulted in a framework that can be used to assess Finance maturity in S&OP. In addition, each company were given suggestions to improve their current practices.