Organizations across the world face a variety of conflicting situations involving suppliers, consumers, and shareholders in a rapidly changing environment. While shareholders demand better returns, customers demand better services and fair prices. Simultaneously, companies across the world find it difficult to access cost-effective materials and resources. They also struggle to hire skilled workers who possess the right skills and talents to work in an increasingly complex production environment.
Overview
Sales and operations planning sets priorities for an organization to ensure that supply, demand, and financial management are aligned with business goals and strategies. Sales and operations managers regularly review supply resources and balance them with customer demand against the backdrop of a constantly changing set of external and internal circumstances.
The outcome of a sales and operations strategy is an S&OP plan that will be implemented across the organization. This plan generally establishes a production quantum to avoid unwanted inventory and to produce according to consumer demands.
After studying the S&OP for feasibility, all areas of the organization work to implement the plan. Rather than duplicating production, all organizational units work together to combine their production efforts and produce a single unit. In effect, S&OP planning assists with optimizing a variety of operational variables to avoid production shortages and balance output with customer requirements and specific budgets.
Profile
S&OP professionals work towards producing effective operations strategies and forming effective plans for execution. They are responsible for working on their plans within budgetary requirements. They are also responsible for the overall implementation of S&OP plans. Thus, S&OP professionals are responsible for the overall sales and operations plans for manufacturing sites as well. In brief, S&OP professionals:
- Gather customer data and forecast customer requirements
- Analyze and determine the manufacturing capacities of organizations in order to meet customer requirements
- Inform top management of actual revenues earned vs. manufacturing targets for particular manufacturing cycles
S&OP professionals typically need about four years of relevant experience that includes previous shop and manufacturing experience. Previous ERP experience is a plus. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, general and operations managers held 1,807,000 jobs in 2004. The median annual earnings of operations managers were about $77,000.
However, as job specifications and responsibilities vary from company to company, earnings can vary significantly as well. Besides the usual benefits, sales and operations professionals can expect to receive additional benefits per their companies' policies. Some of these benefits include company-paid memberships, stock options, incentives, and company transport.
Summary
A career in sales and operations planning can be a great opportunity for aspiring professionals. In addition to universities, a number of professional institutes also provide training in sales and operations planning. Interested professionals can conduct independent searches to enroll at the institutions of their choice.
