Who's in charge ? : sales and operations planning governance and alignment in the supply chain management of multinational industrial companies.

Summary The S&OP process is often thought of as a process for aligning supply and demand in simple, linear supply chains with a single market and a single plant. Multinational companies today have more complex supply chain configurations with specialized plants that serve multiple markets. This paper analyzes how multinational companies configure their S&OP governance processes to link plants and markets, and how this governance influences their ability to achieve alignment between supply, demand, and financial plans. Through interviews with companies, a typology is defined for the observed S&OP governance models. This typology suggests that an authoritative type of S&OP governance, both in the plant and in the market, leads to more successful S&OP outcomes. A link is also established between S&OP effectiveness and formal alignment measures for financial planning. From this, elements of Management Control are refined to enable the conceptualization of S&OP by recognizing the influence of accounting on the governance of the S&OP process to ensure transparency and cross-functional engagement in multinational supply chain contexts. Four normative rules for successful S&OP process governance and alignment in a multinational supply chain configuration context are derived.