Technical Data for the S&OP function

To use the Sales and Operations Plan function, specific technical data has to be introduced through the S&Op menu:

1.  the Family items, which represent the aggregate item families which are planned (for example, the family of items which require a critical production center)

2.  the Resources items, which represent the critical resources for which a long term plan is necessary (for example, a critical production center)

3.  the Resource Bills Of Materials, which indicate how much critical resource capacity is necessary to produce one unit of a family item

4.  the Commercial Bills Of Materials, which indicate the repartition of the family sales forecasts into item sales forecasts (used in the master plans)

5.  the Planning Bills Of Materials, which indicate the repartition of the family projected inventory into item projected inventory (used in the master plans)

The S&OP Calculation function estimates the loads for the critical resources corresponding to the aggregate production plans, using the Resource Bills Of Materials (and not using the manufacturing bills of material). Furthermore, if some sales are not covered by the plan, the S&OP Calculation function proposes additional production suggestions to avoid backorders.

Once the production plans are established, they can be converted into item requirements by the S&OP Disaggregation function (which uses the Commercial Bills Of Materials and the Planning Bills Of Materials). This generates the Master schedule requirement for the manufactured items. It is worth noting that these requirements are decomposed in periodic sales requirements and periodic internal requirements. The sales requirements correspond to the periodic sales (in fact the sum of firm sales orders and of the sales forecasts). These sales forecasts are computed as the disaggregation of the family sales forecasts with the Commercial Bills Of Materials.

If the Distribution function is simultaneously used (Files menu, Preference function, Option tab) the requirements are decomposed for the different distribution centers (or warehouses).