Managing Risk Through Sales and Operations Planning

For supply chain organizations, risks can manifest themselves in tremendously disruptive ways. The scale varies from earthquakes, strikes, and toppled governments to the smaller, persistent risks of fluctuating sales, capacity constraints, and supplier bankruptcies.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) involves integrating planning efforts across an organization’s functions in order to more reliably manage risks. It’s just not often promoted in the specific terms of risk management. 

This article examines the role of risk management in S&OP, pertinent best practices, and how S&OP technology can be leveraged to manage risk.