Caracterização dos fatores para implantação do processo de Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP): um estudo multicaso

Abstract

In today's dynamic market scenario to develop skills for quick and assertive decision making is still one of the challenges faced by companies around the world. In order to assist managers to meet the demand in a competitive way, a new approach to integrated management of business processes has emerged in recent years the S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning). This approach encompasses the master production planning, demand planning and managing the flow of information, resulting in a unique planning to the company. Thus, the purpose of this research is to characterize the success factors for S&OP implementation in three companies that are in distinct S&OP maturity level. Firstly, a Literature Review was conducted about Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), in order to identify relevant points in literature, for this research. For this porpouse, it was used the Systematic Literature Review principles. The empirical part of the research included the method of multi case study in which three organizations that have already deployed the S&OP, but are in different stages of maturity, were investigated in order to clarify different perspectives of the research problem and find common characteristics. After conducting semi-structured interviews, that were used as a research tool, it was used the technique of content analysis to survey the main features of the implementation of S&OP process. From the results, it was possible to develop a set of factors for companies wishing to deploy the process, in which the main determining factors of success were: the involvement of senior management, cross-functional integration, metrics and performance monitoring, information systems and understanding of the process or training. Conversely, the main barriers identified in the study included the culture of silos and inadequate technology and information systems. It is assumed that both external variables such as culture and local economy and internal variables, such as the production strategy adopted, can influence the process of S&OP, elements yet not explored by the literature about the subject.