Sales and Operations Planning Implementation Training Course

Course overview

Sales and Operations Planning fails when demand, supply, inventory, capacity and financial plans are reviewed as separate reports rather than reconciled as one management decision. Planners may produce forecasts, operations may manage constraints, and finance may report budgets, yet leaders still lack an agreed view of what the business can deliver profitably. This course addresses the practical work of implementing a disciplined S&OP cycle: defining decisions, preparing reliable data, resolving gaps and escalating trade-offs before they become service failures, excess stock, expediting costs or missed revenue.

Participants learn how to design and operate the monthly S&OP process from product review through demand review, supply review, pre-S&OP and executive S&OP. The course covers demand and supply balancing, inventory and capacity scenarios, forecast-error analysis, exception management, decision rights, KPI selection and financial reconciliation. Participants practise converting operational alternatives into quantified recommendations using volume, value, margin, working-capital and customer-service measures. They also learn how to distinguish tactical S&OP from day-to-day scheduling and from longer-term integrated business planning.

Delivery combines instructor-led explanation with a running manufacturing and distribution case, spreadsheet-based planning exercises, meeting simulations and peer review. Participants work with realistic demand changes, supplier constraints, capacity shortages and inventory targets, then prepare the evidence needed for an executive decision. Each participant leaves with an S&OP implementation blueprint containing a process calendar, meeting charters, data inputs, KPI scorecard, governance model, escalation rules and a 90-day implementation plan that can be adapted to their organisation.

The course is designed for supply chain, procurement, operations, demand planning and finance professionals who already work with planning data and need to establish or improve a cross-functional S&OP rhythm.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map an end-to-end monthly S&OP cycle from product review through executive decision review
• Define S&OP governance using RACI roles, decision rights and meeting charters
• Build a demand-supply reconciliation model using volume, value, margin and inventory measures
• Calculate forecast accuracy, forecast bias and demand volatility using planning data
• Develop supply, capacity and inventory scenarios for constrained-demand situations
• Create an S&OP KPI scorecard covering service, inventory, capacity, forecast and financial performance
• Facilitate a pre-S&OP decision process that documents assumptions, gaps, options and recommendations
• Produce a 90-day S&OP implementation roadmap with milestones, owners, data requirements and risks

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Supply Chain Managers — who must align demand, supply, inventory and capacity decisions across functions
• Demand Planning Managers — who need to convert forecast performance and market intelligence into agreed demand plans
• Operations and Production Managers — who must present feasible capacity, sourcing and service alternatives in S&OP reviews
• Procurement Managers — who need to represent supplier lead-time, allocation and cost constraints in cross-functional plans
• Inventory and Materials Managers — who must balance stockholding, availability and working-capital targets
• Finance Business Partners — who need to reconcile operational plans with revenue, margin and cash expectations

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to at least one planning, operations, procurement, inventory or forecasting role and be comfortable reading demand, supply, inventory and capacity data. Familiarity with basic spreadsheet work, including filters, formulas and charts in Microsoft Excel, is assumed. Participants should understand common measures such as forecast, sales orders, inventory, lead time, capacity, service level and budget, although advanced statistics are not required. No prior S&OP implementation experience, ERP configuration knowledge or specialist optimisation software expertise is required. The course explains the governance and process-design concepts before applying them to cases.

Training methodology

The five days follow a single multi-site supply chain case in which changing customer demand, supplier disruption, constrained production capacity and financial targets must be reconciled. Short instructor-led sessions introduce the S&OP method, followed by Excel-based calculations, process-design workshops and simulated product, demand, supply and executive review meetings. Teams prepare assumptions, scenarios and decision papers, receiving structured feedback against practical governance and KPI criteria. The final day is an application-planning workshop in which participants create an implementation blueprint for their own operating environment.

Course outline

Day 1: S&OP foundations, scope and governance

• Purpose and business outcomes of Sales and Operations Planning
• S&OP maturity assessment and common implementation failure modes
• Distinguishing S&OP, master scheduling, S&OE and integrated business planning
• Monthly S&OP cycle: product, demand, supply, pre-S&OP and executive reviews
• Decision rights, RACI roles and executive sponsorship
• Planning horizons, time fences and aggregation levels
• S&OP process calendar and meeting-charter design

Workshop: Participants assess a case organisation's planning maturity and produce a draft S&OP process map, calendar and RACI.

Day 2: Demand planning and product portfolio review

• Demand-plan inputs from sales, marketing, customer orders and market intelligence
• Baseline forecasting versus consensus demand planning
• Forecast accuracy measurement using MAPE, WAPE and forecast bias
• Demand volatility, segmentation and aggregation choices
• New-product, phase-in and phase-out planning
• Demand assumptions, risks and exception thresholds
• Product review decisions and portfolio rationalisation inputs

Workshop: Using case sales history and commercial intelligence, participants calculate forecast measures and produce a demand-review pack with assumptions and exceptions.

Day 3: Supply, capacity and inventory reconciliation

• Rough-cut capacity planning and capacity-resource requirements
• Supplier lead-time, allocation and minimum-order constraints
• Inventory policy, safety stock and working-capital implications
• Demand-supply gap analysis by product family and planning period
• Supply response options: overtime, subcontracting, sourcing and allocation
• Scenario modelling for service, cost, capacity and inventory trade-offs
• Supply-review outputs and feasible-plan recommendations

Workshop: Teams build constrained supply scenarios in Excel and present a recommended response to a capacity and supplier-shortage case.

Day 4: Pre-S&OP and executive decision management

• Pre-S&OP agenda, required inputs and decision-log discipline
• Financial reconciliation of volume plans to revenue, margin and cash
• KPI scorecards for service, inventory, forecast, capacity and plan adherence
• Issue escalation thresholds and exception-based management
• Option framing using assumptions, impacts, risks and recommendations
• Executive S&OP meeting design and decision-record templates
• Communicating trade-offs to sales, operations, procurement and finance leaders

Workshop: Participants conduct a simulated pre-S&OP meeting and prepare an executive decision paper with quantified options and a recommendation.

Day 5: Implementation roadmap and operating discipline

• S&OP data architecture and master-data ownership
• Planning-system requirements and spreadsheet control points
• SAP Integrated Business Planning and Kinaxis RapidResponse use cases
• KPI baselines, targets and performance-review cadence
• Change-management plan for cross-functional adoption
• 90-day implementation roadmap, milestones and accountabilities
• S&OP audit criteria and continuous-improvement cycle

Workshop: Each participant produces and peer-reviews a 90-day S&OP implementation blueprint tailored to their organisation, including governance, data, KPIs and risks.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP), Kinaxis RapidResponse, ASCM SCOR Digital Standard (SCOR DS)

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions