Sales, Operations, and Business Planning

Elevate existing Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and transform planning processes with Integrated Business Planning (IBP) to drive strategic alignment across finance, supply chain, sales, and marketing teams. Catalant blends the hands-on experience of former corporate operators with high-end consulting playbooks, enabling you to to:

Drive profitability by optimizing inventory and cash flow

Streamline operations and eliminate siloed decision making

Deliver consistently on financial plans and business commitments

APPROACH

Build Your S&OP/IBP Blueprint

01

Benchmark processes

We assess your current state against industry best practices from leading companies with mature S&OP/IBP capabilities, identifying gaps in existing methodology, processes, tools, and metrics.

02

Assess capabilities

We perform a human-centered assessment of skills, ways of working, cross-functional collaboration, and org design to identify where capability augmentation and change is needed most. This provides clarity on the behavioral changes needed to sustain S&OP/IBP excellence.

03

Create improvement roadmap

We develop a tailored roadmap highlighting quick wins and high-ROI opportunities. Alignment with business priorities and a structured change management approach enables progressive maturity from basic S&OP to fully integrated IBP capabilities.

04

Design the right cadence

We establish the optimal meeting and decision-making cadence for your organization, including the right participants, materials, and agenda for each step of the process. This ensures decisions are made by the right people at the right time with the right information.

05

Build sustainable capabilities

We partner with you to build internal capabilities through hands-on training, coaching, and knowledge transfer. Our expertise in change management helps your team develop the technical and leadership skills required to drive ongoing S&OP/IBP maturity independently.

WINNING TOGETHER

Sales, Operations, and Business Planning in Action

Mid-market Private Food Manufacturer
More Success Stories

Problem

Following a period of hyper-growth, a mid-market private food manufacturer had not delivered their annual plan in several years. Obsolete inventory was out of control, finished goods inventory was 2x industry benchmarks, and margins had steadily declined.

Action

The Catalant team conducted a 6-week assessment of management processes, planning capabilities, metrics, and organizational design to build the business case for IBP implementation. An 18-month roadmap was created for the full 5-step IBP process implementation, including templates, capability building, and training to mature the manufacturer’s planning processes.

Results

The IBP implementation transformed the organization’s performance across multiple dimensions:

 

  • 75% reduction in obsolete inventory and 50% reduction in finished goods inventory
  • 200 basis point increase in margins, reversing a multi-year decline
  • 90% reduction in leadership meetings, dramatically improving operational efficiency

S&OP Transformation for Specialty Retailer

A leading specialty retailer was facing challenges caused by development timeline adjustments, an evolving macro environment, and industry capacity constraints. To proactively address the issues, the organization partnered with Catalant to transform S&OP at the organization. The work resulted in better coordination between merchandise planning and supply planning teams, a balance of supply and demand, and ongoing continuous improvement.

S&OP Redesign and Implementation

An industry-leading steel manufacturer with no integrated S&OP struggled to develop a reasonable demand forecast. Functions worked in silos, and the company was dealing with excess inventory. A centralized hub for sales and operations planning and a redesigned process that combined demand forecasting with production planning and scheduling reduced inventory levels by 25% and improved demand forecasting accuracy by 17pp.

FEATURED EXPERTS

Featured S&OP/IBP Experts

Paul M.

20-year supply chain expert with a focus on CPG and industrials

Seasoned supply chain executive specializing in strategy, transformation, integrated business planning, logistics optimization, advanced systems implementation, capital planning, performance metrics, and customer service excellence.

View Profile

Dena M.

Hands-on S&OP and IBP expert delivering practical, actionable results

Supply chain consultant with experience at global manufacturing and consumer brands. Transforms complex planning challenges into measurable business value by implementing best-in-class S&OP, IBP, and inventory optimization with a pragmatic approach.

View Profile

Mitch M.

Ph.D. and expert in planning, lean supply chain and inventory optimization

Helping small and mid-size companies transform their S&OP for 26 years with a streamlined ‘Lite’ approach that solves problems.

View Profile

Jay J.

Ex-McKinsey expert leading S&OP and supply chain transformations

20+ years driving EBITDA-focused S&OP/IBP improvements across Fortune 500 and PE portfolio companies. Delivers measurable margin, service, and working capital gains through strategic planning, network optimization, and effective tool implementation.

View Profile

Ready to transform your S&OP process?

Connect with dozens of Experts qualified and ready to do this work.