The plan always looks solid in the spreadsheet. Growth is broken down by customer, product group, and quarter. The pipeline looks promising. Campaigns are scheduled. The target is clear.
Then the plan hits your supply chain, and the questions start. Can your suppliers keep up? Does the warehouse hold the right products? Is there capacity when demand arrives? And what does the plan mean for capital tied up in inventory, margin, and cash flow?
That's where sales and operations planning comes in. Not as another meeting on the calendar, but as a fixed process where you match expected demand with what the business can actually deliver.
Without a shared planning process, you quickly end up with several versions of the future. Sales looks at pipeline and campaigns. Supply chain leans on historical consumption. Purchasing weighs lead times, supplier terms, and minimum order quantities. Finance watches budget, inventory value, and working capital.
Every department needs its own perspective. But you need one shared plan to make decisions from.