Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning (SIOP)

What is SIOP?

Align customer demand, supply, inventory, operations, and financial objectives to enable predictable revenue fulfillment, scalable growth, improved customer service, and stronger profitability.

“SIOP” stands for Sales Inventory Operations Planning. Depending on the industry or organization, you may also hear it referred to as “S&OP” or Sales & Operations Planning. Sometimes, it is even referred to as “IBP” or Integrated Business Planning. Typically, they mean the same thing.

The most important concepts are planning, alignment, and operational execution. In SIOP, the goal is to have Sales, Operation, R&D/ New Products & Finance, all planning together. The mission is to align a sales plan and the associated operations plans, to provide superior customer service and profitability.

SIOP Benefits Across the Organization

Sales & Marketing

Sales and Marketing leaders will gain high levels of service for their customers with on-time-in-full (OTIF) levels in the high 90’s, shorter lead-times, and high ratings on customer scorecards. They also will gain improved levels of responsiveness to customer needs and confidence in new product rollouts.

Engineering

For engineer-to-order (ETO) and configure-to-order (CTO) businesses, Engineering leaders will gain visibility into workload requirements to support drawings, customer approvals, and bill of material designs. They will be able to plan for the appropriate level of engineering capacity and capabilities.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing leaders will gain visibility into work center, machine, equipment, tooling, maintenance, staffing, and training requirements so that they can plan accordingly. They will also gain visibility into the master production schedule so that they can optimize run sizes with changeovers and costs.

Purchasing

Purchasing leaders will gain visibility into raw material, component, ingredient, and outside processing requirements so that they can work with suppliers to set up the appropriate programs and contracts to meet customer requirements. Suppliers will have visibility to capacity and scorecards.

Logistics

Logistics leaders will gain visibility into storage, warehousing, handling, picking, packing, shipping, transportation, returns, and equipment requirements so that they can plan accordingly. As gaps arise, service and cost options can be analyzed to expand capacity or capabilities as needed to support customers.

Finance

Finance leaders will gain visibility into sales forecasts, engineering and manufacturing plans, capital expenditure needs, purchase forecasts, staffing and support resource requirements, logistics forecasts, and inventory projections. Thus, they will have revenue, cost, profitability, and cash flow projections.

Planning

Planning leaders will gain visibility into the demand plan, sales orders, quotes, replenishment orders, and work order status so that they can develop the best master production schedule (MPS) to optimize customer service, operational efficiency and working capital. They will gain high service levels and increased margins.

SIOP / S&OP FAQs

Are you interested in the answers to any of these questions?

What is the difference between SIOP, S&OP and IBP?
What are the benefits of SIOP?
How does SIOP improve profitability and EBITDA?
How does SIOP support growth and scalability?
What KPIs should you track?
What are the biggest obstacles to SIOP success?
Do you have the profitability insights needed to prioritize products, customers, and investments?

Read our FAQs to answer questions on what, why, and how of SIOP and whether it can solve business challenges.

Q&A/ FAQs: Implementing S&OP and SIOP - Expert Insights by LMA Consulting. Improve planning processes, improve performance.

LMA CONSULTING GROUP BY THE NUMBERS

Our clients gain significant bottom line results, ranging from enabling sales growth to OTIF levels in the high 90%’s to millions of dollars of inventory savings to margin improvement and cost savings. We have broad experience across multiple industries, company sizes, geographies, and from both the industry and consulting point-of-view. Additionally, we have the deep connections and vast thought leadership on SIOP.

30+

Years of SIOP experience

44+

Client engagements

121+

Thought leadership publications

24+

Client countries

SIOP Accolades & Client Results

LMA Consulting Group has helped manufacturers and distributors improve forecast accuracy, align operations with customer demand, reduce inventory, strengthen service performance, and enable predictable revenue fulfillment and profitable growth. The following accolades, testimonials, and client results highlight the measurable business impact achieved through SIOP alignment, operational execution, and supply chain transformation initiatives.

Qualitative & Quantitative Results

"We achieved quantitative and qualitative results within 6 months! Lisa successfully partnered with our team to implement SIOP/MPS process. She is responsive, prepared and ready to make progress at every juncture."

Bob Ellithorpe

General Manager Aerospace Dynamics International

Credibility and Trust

"LMA Consulting Group's Parizad Sethna has been able to quickly develop credibility and trust, and given her ability and passion to identify and solve problems, she has become the go-to person for Supply Chain questions."

Antonio Martinez

Head of Supply Chain, Nestle Nutrition USA

SIOP Success

"Lisa helped us not only dramatically increase service levels and bring our #1 customer back into the "good" zone but also lift margins, project inventory and cash requirements and increase employee engagement with SIOP."

Liz Cruz

Supply Chain Manager, Esterline Mason

Value Statement

"We enjoyed millions of dollars of increased cash flow due to reduced inventory levels and improved material availability on our highly configurable, made-to-order, short lead-time product"

Jim Cenname

President, US Aluminum

Client Success Stories

We asked our clients about the results we achieved together.

Rick Moroski, Sr. VP and COO, SchenckProcess

Craig Young, Senior Director of Operation, Nellson Gallery

Kelly Ford, Aerospace Executive

David Cox, General Manager of Operations, Armacell LLC

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Continue Exploring SIOP

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to advance an existing SIOP process, these resources provide practical guidance, client examples, and implementation best practices.

What Is SIOP? – Our flagship guide to Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning.
Best of SIOP – A curated collection of our best SIOP articles, client examples, and executive insights.
SIOP FAQs – Answers to the most common executive questions about implementation, technology, KPIs, business outcomes, and best practices.
SIOP: Creating Predictable Revenue & EBITDA Growth – Download our complimentary eBook.
Related SIOP Articles – Explore additional thought leadership on planning, inventory, technology, AI, customer service, profitability, and supply chain resilience.