Sales and Operations Planning Standard System

About the Book

The Sales and Operations Planning Standard System covers S&OP and closely related topics like rough-cut planning, performance measurements, and financial integration. It explains the core functionality that must be present in S&OP software to truly call it S&OP.

The functions described in the S&OP Standard System include those required to support communication and decision-making focused on volume related manufacturing and supply chain issues. The Sales and Operations Planning Standard System describes a simple set of software functions, primarily those in the areas of aggregate sales planning, aggregate supply planning, aggregate inventory or backlog planning, reporting and display of key performance and planning information, rough-cut (capacity and material) planning, and financial planning. It describes the activities that are part of a working sales and operations planning process, as well as an explanation of the assumptions and the experience that led to these functions. In addition it describes some of the key interfaces that must exist with other essential company functions. For example, the S&OP Standard System describes the interfaces to resource planning functions like master production scheduling and sales planning, and the interfaces to lean manufacturing functions like takt time calculations.

The book is organized into the following chapters:

• The S&OP Process
• S&OP Basics Including Calculations and Reporting
• Additional Reporting Considerations
• Additional Issues – Managing Change, Validation, and Linking
• Rough-Cut Planning
• Feeding Financial Analysis
• Measures of Performance
• Graphical Displays of S&OP Data
• Functional Checklists
• Reference Software

About the Author

Chris Gray has been at the forefront of applying proven manufacturing management methods and concepts for over three decades. Since 1979, he has helped more manufacturing and distribution companies resolve resource planning software issues than anyone else in the field. He has been involved in the design and development of both resource planning and lean manufacturing software. His ideas about resource planning software (MRPII and ERP) have influenced the design of nearly every major supplier in the field, and his concepts of how lean manufacturing can be supported by software have been used by the leading supplier of enterprise software to the automotive sector to develop a comprehensive lean manufacturing system.

He has authored five books:

The Right Choice, A Complete Guide to Evaluating, Selecting, and Installing MRPII Software
The MRPII Standard System, A Handbook for Manufacturing Software Survival, co-authored with Darryl Landvater
The MRPII Standard System Workbook, co-authored with Darryl Landvater
Sales and Operations Planning - Best Practices, co-authored with John Dougherty
Sales and Operations Planning Standard System

Chris is President of Gray Research and one of the founders of Partners For Excellence. Gray Research offers consulting and education on the concepts and methods of world class performance. Partners For Excellence offers counseling and public and private seminars and workshops for executives and managers trying to make the changes needed for improved manufacturing and supply chain performance.

Chris was president of Oliver Wight Software Research, Inc. and one of the Oliver Wight Education Associates. He also developed and taught the "MRPII Software Survival Course", a class covering software evaluation and selection, software trends, and the role of systems people in implementing effective systems. During his consulting career, he has been associated with both R. D. Garwood, Inc. and The Oliver Wight Companies.

Chris has a BA in mathematics from Washington and Jefferson College and a MS in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a past president of the North Shore chapter of APICS and is certified by APICS as a Fellow. He has spoken at numerous international conferences on manufacturing systems and methods. He is listed in six different volumes of Who's Who: Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in America's Emerging Leaders, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, and Who's Who in the World.