Offer 05S&OP

Sales and operations planning software

A sales forecast for each product, so your team can buy and produce earlier, before the orders arrive.

Start a conversation See what you get
Stainless steel tanks numbered 3 and 9 on a production floor, with pallets of boxed stock in the aisle

Who it’s for

This offer is for the owner and the operations lead of a manufacturer or distributor in Canada or the United States. The offer is also for the sales lead, the planner and the buyer.

When purchasing and production start only after the order arrives, the customer waits for material and machine time. Your sales team knows what is coming, but that knowledge stays in their heads and in open quotes.

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is a monthly process where sales, operations and finance agree on one plan for demand, supply and stock. This offer builds the forecast and the plan that the monthly meeting works from. The guide to sales and operations planning covers the monthly steps.

The offer fits when:

  • Material is ordered only after the customer’s order arrives, and the customer waits for the material.
  • The forecast, if there is one, is last year’s sales in a spreadsheet.
  • Sales hears about large orders before purchasing does.
  • The plant runs overtime one month and waits for work the next.
Stacks of white, dark blue and green plastic crates against a warehouse wall
With a forecast by product, material and machine time are ready before the orders arrive.

What you get

01A sales forecast for every productBuilt from your order history, open quotes and what your sales team knows, by product and by month.
02The forecast tested on past monthsEach product’s forecast is scored on months the model did not see, so you know how far to trust the forecast.
03What to buy and what to make, and whenThe forecast turned into material to order and production to plan, month by month, within your capacity and supplier lead times.
04One plan for the monthly meetingDemand, supply and stock by product family on one page, with the gaps the meeting has to decide.
05Your sales team’s judgment, recordedSales adjusts the forecast for the customers and orders they know about, and each change is logged with the reason.
06Forecast accuracy, before and afterAccuracy by product for the method you use today and for the new forecast, scored on the same months.

How it runs

After the diagnostic, four steps to a monthly plan in use.

Step 1Your orders, quotes and stock in your workspaceWe connect read-only to your ERP and load order history, open quotes, stock and supplier lead times. With you, we group the products into families and score the forecast you use today.
Step 2A forecast by product, tested on past monthsWe build the forecast by product and month, and test the forecast on months the model has not seen. You see the accuracy of each product next to the method you use today.
Step 3A plan for buying and productionWe turn the forecast into material to order and production to plan, within your capacity and supplier lead times. Your sales lead adjusts the forecast with what the team knows.
Step 4The monthly plan in use, approved by your teamYour team runs the monthly meeting from the plan and approves the plan. We hand over and decide with you what comes next.

The length and the price of the first stage are set after the diagnostic. The price stays the same however many days the work takes. The module runs on your own workspace and keeps running after the first stage. A monthly plan covers improvements and support.

What we need from you

AccessRead-only access to your ERP, or exports of orders, stock and purchase orders.
DataCustomer orders by product and month, as far back as you have them, open quotes and supplier lead times.
Your plant and suppliersCapacity for each line or work centre, supplier lead times and minimums, and the stock you want to hold.
TimeYour sales lead, operations lead and buyer, about two hours each at the start, then one review a month.
A young machinist in safety glasses and a blue apron watches the spindle of a CNC router cut a metal plate

What changes

Your team sees what each product is likely to sell, and buys material and books machine time before the orders arrive.

The measure is forecast accuracy by product, before and after: the method you use today and the new forecast, scored on the same months. The forecast accuracy calculator shows how that score works.

Material arrives before the order does, and production starts earlier. Orders ship sooner, so the cash from each order comes in earlier.

After the first stage

The forecast and the monthly plan keep running on your workspace after the first stage.

Modules
Configure, price and draw Quoting Inventory and MRP Product data Demand planning Production scheduling Margin and pricing Order desk Reporting
Your workspace
One data warehouse, with your own copy of your dataReserved for your team, and hosted by ThriveAI or on your own servers.
Your systems
ERPAccountingEmailSpreadsheetsFiles and drawings

One workspace per company. Modules are added one at a time, and each new module reads the data that is already in the warehouse.

What can come next

Your order history, forecast and supply plan now sit in your workspace. The next module starts from the same data.

Questions people ask

What is S&OP software?
S&OP software supports the monthly sales and operations planning meeting. The software holds the demand forecast, the supply plan and the stock each product family needs.
What does it cost, and how long does it take?
The price and the length of the first stage are both set after the diagnostic. The price stays the same however many days the work takes. ThriveAI does not publish prices.
Does the forecast replace our sales team’s judgment?
No. The forecast is the first draft. Your sales team adjusts the forecast for the customers and orders they know about, and the monthly meeting approves the plan.
Do we need clean data first?
No. The work starts from the orders and stock your ERP holds. Gaps, such as missing months or products with little history, go on a list for your team.
Where does our data go?
Your company has a copy of the data reserved for your team. ThriveAI hosts that copy, or you host the copy on your own servers. The AI assistant in the tool uses only models with zero data retention (ZDR), which means the provider does not keep the requests. The AI used to build the tool does not train on your data.
Who owns the code?
The code belongs to ThriveAI. Your company uses the code under a licence with no fee. Code written for your company alone can be transferred to your company by agreement. A monthly plan covers improvements and support.

Contact

Buy and produce before the orders arrive

Tell Derik what you make or distribute, which ERP you run and how you forecast sales today. He will tell you what the diagnostic would look at and what the first stage would cover.

Prefer to talk? Book a meeting.

Your message goes to Derik Lawlis, the founder.