Economic developments such as growing globalization, market uncertainty, increasing customer demands, shorter product life-cycles and rising supply chain interconnectedness as well as product complexity require companies to be even more responsive to market conditions in order to improve their competitiveness. Higher competitiveness as a whole company can only be achieved by an increased cross-functional alignment and collaboration within the company and with external suppliers and customers.
Evolving from aggregated production planning and manufacturing resource planning, sales and operations planning (S&OP) is a business process supported by information technology (IT) that aims at aligning sales and production both intra-organizational and inter-organizational across the supply chain. S&OP is only seldom introduced at once in a big bang approach. Thus, companies should strive to continuously improve their intra- and inter-organizational alignment and S&OP process. A maturity model (MM) can help to assess the current state of the S&OP implementation and can direct the continuous improvement along predefined coordination mechanisms and dimensions.
Further benefits of applying MMs in the context of S&OP should be identified during this thesis. Furthermore, a general characterization of MMs should be presented and adopted to S&OP maturity assessment. As MMs are published by researchers and practitioners (mainly consultancies and analysts), this thesis further aims at determining from which publishing stream a MM should be taken in order to assess the S&OP maturity of a company and to direct further improvements in maturity. This may also result in a proposition for a concrete MM to use.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Methodology
3 Maturity models for sales and operations planning
3.1 S&OP as alignment mechanism
3.2 S&OP as a process
3.3 Maturity in S&OP
4 Maturity model synthesis and presentation
4.1 Consultancy maturity models
4.2 Scientific maturity models
4.3 Excluded maturity models
5 Comparison of scientific and consultancy maturity models
5.1 General
5.2 Dimensional analysis
6 Discussion
7 Conclusion and Outlook
8 References
9 Appendix
A Taxonomy of literature review
B S&OP coordination framework
C Gartner research stream maturity model
D Aberdeen Group research stream maturity model
E Sub-dimensions of Wagner’s, Ullrich’s and Transchel’s maturity model
F Maturity model comparison with dimension match
Research Objectives and Themes
The primary objective of this thesis is to characterize maturity models (MMs) used in the context of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and to determine whether a scientific or a consultancy-based publishing stream provides a more suitable framework for assessing organizational S&OP maturity and directing improvement efforts.
- Characterization and synthesis of existing S&OP maturity models.
- Comparison of scientific versus consultancy-based maturity assessment frameworks.
- Dimensional analysis of maturity models using key coordination mechanisms.
- Evaluation of the reliability and practical applicability of different MM research streams.
Excerpt from the Book
3.3 Maturity in S&OP
Since its development in the 1970s the concept of MMs became increasingly popular as a means of continuous improvement as well as external assessment and spreads into many domains. One famous example is the capability MM in the context of software development processes (Mettler 2011). Maturity describes „the quality or state of being mature” or “full development” (Merriam-Webster 2016). This state is characterized by completeness, perfection and readiness. Thus, maturity describes an evolutionary development of a specific capability from an initial stage to a desired or natural final stage. Consequently, MMs “describe and determine the state of perfection or completeness (maturity) of certain capabilities” (Wendler 2012, p. 1319). These capabilities are often “organizations or processes” (Becker, Knackstedt, Pöppelbuß 2009, p. 213). The structure of a MM consists of the two components stages and measurement criteria. The collection of stages describes a sequential development in the maturity of the object under investigation. Each stage represents a certain point in the maturity development in an abstract, simplified manner. The completeness of each maturity stage is measured by measurement criteria. These criteria have different characteristic values according to a specific stage (Wendler 2012). The measurement criteria are called dimensions throughout this thesis. MMs that refer to only one criterion are referred to as “one-dimensional” whereas MMs with more than one analysis criterion are called “multi-dimensional” (Lyytlnen 1991, p. 89; Tab. 2).
Summary of Chapters
1 Introduction: Introduces the economic necessity for improved cross-functional alignment and the role of maturity models in guiding S&OP process improvements.
2 Methodology: Details the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach used to identify and synthesize relevant maturity models from both academic and consultancy sources.
3 Maturity models for sales and operations planning: Explains S&OP as an alignment mechanism, describes the generic S&OP process, and defines the conceptual foundation of maturity models.
4 Maturity model synthesis and presentation: Categorizes and synthesizes identified maturity models into consultancy research streams and scientific maturity models.
5 Comparison of scientific and consultancy maturity models: Provides a comparative analysis of models based on research quality, granularity, and dimensional coverage.
6 Discussion: Critically evaluates the findings and offers recommendations on the application of specific maturity models for organizational assessment.
7 Conclusion and Outlook: Summarizes the thesis findings, confirms the proposed models for practical application, and outlines future research needs.
Keywords
Sales and Operations Planning, S&OP, Maturity Model, MM, Alignment Mechanism, Systematic Literature Review, SLR, Process Improvement, Supply Chain, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Dimensional Analysis, Performance Management, Business Process, Benchmarking, Consultancy Research.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this thesis?
This thesis examines maturity models specifically designed for Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) to assess how they can help organizations evaluate and improve their process maturity.
What are the primary thematic fields covered?
The work covers S&OP process definitions, the structure of maturity models, the synthesis of scientific and consultancy-based models, and the dimensional comparison of these models.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to determine the most effective publishing stream—scientific or consultancy—for selecting a maturity model to assess S&OP maturity and guide improvements.
Which scientific methods are applied?
The author employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology to identify, synthesize, and compare relevant S&OP maturity models found in academic and grey literature.
What topics are discussed in the main body?
The main body details S&OP as an alignment mechanism, reviews various maturity models (consultancy vs. scientific), and performs a comparative dimensional analysis.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), Maturity Model (MM), Alignment, Systematic Literature Review (SLR), and Dimensional Analysis.
How do scientific and consultancy maturity models differ?
Scientific models typically offer higher granularity and are peer-reviewed, whereas consultancy models are often tied to specific business tools and sometimes lack detailed validation data.
Which maturity models are recommended by the author?
The author suggests using the models proposed by Grimson and Pyke (2007) or Wagner, Ullrich, and Transchel (2014) due to their rigorous construction and extensive assessment bases.
Does S&OP maturity correlate with company size?
Based on the analysis of Grimson and Pyke (2007), the thesis concludes that S&OP maturity is not linked to company size; size is neither an enabler nor a restraint.
- Quote paper
- Tobias Wulfert (Author), 2016, Sales and Operations Planning. Scientific and Consultancy Maturity Models Indicating the Degree of Implementation, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/359018
