One challenge organizations are facing in all industries is determining the likely events of the future and developing strategies to handle these challenges. Sales and operations planning are a decision-making process and tool that helps organizations to allocate resources not only to handle the challenges but also to take advantage of future conditions by balancing supply and demand. There is only a limited amount of framework and models available today. This project will divulge and reveal a new framework for sales and operations planning which has been developed in collaboration with an organization operating in the aerospace and defence industry. The basis of the framework consists of a monthly five step process that facilitates the organization in making decisions based on long term (five-years) organizational goals and tying them in with project specific needs. Ultimately, this will provide a centralized system in meeting current project specific demands whilst ensuring future operations are not compromised but enhanced. The company’s current sales and operations planning maturity level was evaluated and compared to the developed framework to find gaps of what needs to change for the company to have proactive sales and operations planning.

Litteraturen om Sälj- & verksamhetsplanering (S&OP) är generellt sett samstämmig kring slutsatsen att  en  sådan  process är  överlägsen traditionell planering,  där  varje  funktion planerar  sin  egen verksamhet. Men även om konceptet och möjliga fördelar är lätta att förstå, så har det visat sig svårt för många företag att operationalisera processen i verkligheten. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vilka stora hinder ett komplext tillverkande företag ställs inför vid operationaliserandet av en Sälj- & verksamhetsplaneringsprocess. För att fylla detta syfte så  genomfördes en djup fallstudie på  ett företag med ambitionen att operationalisera en standardprocess. Vidare gjordes en syntes av idag existerande mognadsramverk för processen, för att identifiera det mest passande ramverket för att diagnostisera en organisation och dess mognadsnivå. Genom att syntetisera litteraturen identifierades ramverket framtaget av Grimson och Pyke (2007) som det mest passande ramverket för att diagnostisera en organisation i den specifika kontexten. Vidare identifierades tre problemområden som i störst utsträckning hindrar operationaliserandet av en standardprocess: organisationens komplexitet, produktportföljskomplexitet samt IT-stöd. Denna  studie  bidrar  till  både  utövare  och  forskare  med  vägledning  för  att  framgångsrikt diagnostisera en organisations mognadsnivå inom processen, genom att identifiera och belysa de största hindren en komplex tillverkande organisation möter. För forskare påvisar detta att djupare forskning behövs inom vart och ett av dessa problemområden, och för företag och organisationer belyser   denna   studie   vart   resurser   ska   fokuseras   för   att   möjliggöra   ett   framgångsrikt operationaliserande av en Sälj- & Verksamhetsplaneringsprocess. / In general, literature is unanimous in concluding that Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is superior to traditional decoupled planning. But even though the concept and potential benefits of S&OP  is  easy  to  comprehend,  the  process  has  proven  to  be  difficult  for  organizations  to operationalize in reality. Thus, the objective of this research was to investigate what major obstacles complex manufacturing organizations face while striving to operationalize a standard level Sales & Operations Planning process. In order to fill the research objective, empirical research in an in-depth case study format at a company that have the ambition to operationalize a standard level process was performed. More, a framework synthesis was carried out to identify the most suitable maturity framework for diagnosing organization’s S&OP maturity level. Through the S&OP Maturity Model Synthesis the framework by Grimson & Pyke (2007) is found the most appropriate for diagnosing a company within the specific context. Further, the major obstacles  for  complex  manufacturing  organizations  identified  are:  Organizational  complexity, product portfolio complexity and IT system support. This study firstly contributes to  practitioners and  researchers with guidance for  organizational diagnosis.   Secondly,   by   investigating   and   highlighting   the   major   obstacles   that   complex manufacturing organizations encounter when seeking to evolve in a S&OP process.  For researchers this indicates further research within each of these areas, and for practitioners the result signals where to focus time and resources in order to enable S&OP maturity progress.

Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is used as a tactical business process to balanceorganisations’ demand and supply. This is done through long-term planning of manufacturing and sales in comparison to the forecasted demand and resource capacity planning. S&OP link the corporate strategic plan to the day-to-day operation plans. Based on S&OP, a more advanced and mature model named Integrated Business Planning (IBP) has been developed. IBP have a stronger consideration of the financial perspectives of the outcomes in the processand increases the collaboration of the end-to-end supply chain. The case company; Nouryon, transitioned from S&OP processes to IBP in 2019. However, the organisation’s implemented model was unsatisfactorily received, therefore an initiative to redeploy and improve the Integrated Business Planning processes started. The purpose of this research is to analyse how the organisation’s IBP processes can be improved, by structuring and developing standardized processes. The Master Thesis project was conducted in collaboration with Business Planning managers and executives globally throughout the organisation. To achieve the purpose of the project, a literature review, interviews, observations, document collection and a questionnaire were executed at Nouryon’s Nordic Business Center. Nouryon’s Integrated Business Planning processes were mapped by collecting and analysing internal data.The current state was evaluated against the literature to identify any gaps from a theoretical perspective to fulfil the processes. The organisation’s current maturity level was evaluated by applying thematic content analysison the interviews, internal company document collection and outputs from the questionnaire. These were based on several research frameworks in S&OP maturity levels and Oliver Wight’s Class A Checklist for Business Excellence. Consequently, deriving improvements of how Nouryon could reach a higher maturity level. The results of the thesis project were presented and used in internal workshops together with global cross-functional teams. New and improved Integrated Business Planning processes were drafted in the workshop for the PMR meetings. The workshop for SMR is planned for a later date and will be conducted using a similar format. In conclusion, no theoretical standard framework for using IBP is available. Various literaturesources present theories on how organisations should form their processes, including a guideline on what topics should be covered in the IBP meetings. Nouryon can achieve a higher maturity level in its IBP processes, by addressing improvement suggestions related to the analysis of this project. Furthermore, the recommendations were collected, summarised, and categorised using an impact and effort matrix for efficient implementation.