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S&OP has a very specific role to play in Supply Chain planning.
Most companies use Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process for their overall demand and supply planning requirements. However, we do realize that it is not a panacea for all supply planning.
We need to consider the planning horizon and pair it with the frequency of planning. Certain planning decisions, such as new product introduction, production capacity planning, manpower planning, outsourcing, vendor capacity need planning horizon of 3 to 12 months. These are well served by the S&OP process with its monthly cadence.
On the other hand, various execution decisions, such as vendor deliveries, production scheduling, dispatches need to look at a much shorter horizon, dictated by their Replenishment Lead Time. S&OP with monthly cadence turns out to be awfully inadequate to serve these requirements. These decisions need agile processes like Demand Sensing, Dynamic Buffer Targeting and Replenishment, for which daily planning is a must.
Different horses for different courses…