How to design S&OP process steps?: The case of global manufacturing organizations

Abstract

This paper aims at identifying the key Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process steps within global manufacturing organizations, which is a topic not sufficiently explored in S&OP literature. It relies on a multiple case study approach with two multinational companies. The study departs from a SLR and then uses a pattern-matching technique to test the theoretical S&OP designs with those identified based on the semistructured interviews with key stakeholders from the two companies. The findings suggest that global multinational firms are not settled in 5 or 7 step process design and can have more steps, such as a 10-step approach.