Looking Over the Visible Planning Horizon (2024)

I met a young woman at a semi-conductor manufacturer who wanted advice concerning Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) processes. Her Chief Operating Officer (COO) had asked her to start a process among executives. Her main concern was that the COO wanted it to focus exclusively on the immediate fiscal quarter.

This planning horizon is too short for executives to have meaningful future impact.

Sales and marketing activities can’t be significantly changed, supply is relatively limited, and the S&OP meetings are too operationally-oriented. I advised that she should focus on getting a routine process started and eventually convince the COO to move the planning horizon out to at least six months, and possibly up to 18 months; consistent with typical S&OP processes.

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I met a young woman at a semi-conductor manufacturer who wanted advice concerning Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) processes. Her Chief Operating Officer (COO) had asked her to start a process among executives. Her main concern was that the COO wanted it to focus exclusively on the immediate fiscal quarter.

This planning horizon is too short for executives to have meaningful future impact.

Sales and marketing activities can’t be significantly changed, supply is relatively limited, and the S&OP meetings are too operationally-oriented. I advised that she should focus on getting a routine process started and eventually convince the COO to move the planning horizon out to at least six months, and possibly up to 18 months; consistent with typical S&OP processes.

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