Sales & marketing
Sales and Operations Planning Process: Reconcile Monthly Demand and Capacity
The sales and operations planning process brings demand and supply assumptions into one aggregate plan. This exercise uses monthly installation capacity, not an individual’s daily task list. It shows how to identify a mismatch, compare conditional responses and document who must confirm the facts before a plan is accepted.
Use the same planning unit and horizon
Fictional service business plans standard installations for April, May and June. Every installation uses one supplied capacity slot. Demand is 80,110 and 90 installations respectively; available capacity is 90,90 and 100 slots. The exercise assumes no unfinished work carried into April.
Oracle’s S&OP overview describes reconciling product, demand and supply plans at an aggregate level. Here, month and standard installation are the shared period and unit. A count of enquiries or staff hours would require a defined conversion before it could be compared with these slots.
Find the mismatch before selecting a response
Aggregate monthly reconciliation
April: demand 80 versus capacity 90;10 slots spare.
May: demand 110 versus capacity 90;20 slots short.
June: demand 90 versus capacity 100;10 slots spare.
Quarter total: 280 demand and 280 capacity. Matching quarter totals do not eliminate May’s shortfall: unused April capacity cannot automatically be stored and used in May.
Compare two conditional planning scenarios
ScenarioA: sales identifies 10 May installations that might move to April and 10 that might move to June, subject to each buyer’s agreement. If all 20 moves are confirmed and operationally suitable, revised demand is 90,90 and 100. That fits the supplied monthly capacity. Until agreement is confirmed, it remains a scenario rather than a committed schedule.
ScenarioB: operations investigates 20 additional May slots. The exercise supplies no approved extra capacity, cost or staffing plan, so do not count these slots as available. Finance and operations need the proposed cost and feasibility information before the decision owner can compare this option withA.
Complete the planning decision record
Owners and evidence, not an assumed consensus
Demand owner: sales lead. Confirm which buyers can change month; retain unconfirmed demand in its original month until agreed.
Supply owner: operations lead. Verify slot availability and whether all proposed installations fit the standard-slot assumption.
Cost owner: finance lead. Compare the documented costs of the feasible scenarios; no cost ranking is possible from the supplied figures.
Decision owner: planning lead. Select an approved plan only after unresolved assumptions are visible. Publish the agreed version and the changes from the prior plan.
Review a partial confirmation
New information: only 8 installations can move to April and 6 to June; no extra May capacity is approved. Revised demand is 88,96 and 96. May remains 6 slots short, while April and June have 2 and 4 spare respectively. Report the unresolved six-slot gap instead of rounding the partial agreement to the original 20.
Practice conclusion: “Quarter capacity equals total demand, but monthly feasibility depends on confirmed timing. Partial buyer agreement leaves a six-slot May gap.” The process still needs a decision; a balanced quarterly total is not permission to promise unconfirmed installation dates.
Questions, answered
Is S&OP the same as a daily work schedule?
No. This exercise reconciles demand and capacity at the month and service-family level, with decisions across functions.
Can unused capacity simply move to another month?
Not in this supplied service model. Demand can change month only when the stated conditions are confirmed; capacity has its own period.
Sources and examples
ResumizeAI team. Examples are fictional teaching material, not customer results. Replace sample details with your own facts.
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