| Course | OPS 405 Enterprise Resource Management (OPS/405) |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Sales and operations planning analysis |
| Length | about 1,032 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for OPS 405 Week 2
Spring Planting, Summer Lull: A Sales and Operations Planning Cycle and Aggregate Plan for a Hydraulic Cylinder Maker
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
OPS/405: Enterprise Resource Management
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Saginaw Valley Fluid Power, its demand, capacity and costs are composites written for a model paper.
Saginaw Valley Fluid Power, the made-up hydraulic cylinder maker in Saginaw, Michigan, examined in Week 1, sells mostly to builders of tractors, loaders and harvesters. Their production, and therefore Saginaw Valley's orders, peaks before spring planting and slows in late summer and fall. Each year the plant scrambles in spring, paying overtime and missing dates, then sends people home early in autumn. Sales promises what customers ask for; operations plans what it thinks it can build; finance learns the results afterward. This paper designs a sales and operations planning (S&OP) process and uses it to set the coming year's aggregate plan.
Why S&OP
Thomé et al. (2012) synthesized research on sales and operations planning and described it as a process that aligns demand and supply plans across functions, linking them to business and financial plans, with evidence of benefits for operational and business performance. Oliva and Watson (2011) studied S&OP at a consumer electronics company and found that the process improved alignment among functions even when information and incentives differed, largely because its procedures forced shared discussion of a single plan. Saginaw Valley's problem is exactly misalignment.
The Monthly Cycle
Week 1, data gathering: last month's actual sales, production and inventory are loaded by family.
Week 2, demand review: sales, led by the sales director, updates the 18-month forecast using customer releases and dealer inventory reports.
Week 2, supply review: operations, led by the plant manager, tests the forecast against capacity, labor and material constraints and prepares options.
Week 3, pre-meeting: sales, operations, finance and the supply chain manager agree on recommendations and list unresolved issues.
Week 4, executive meeting: the president decides on unresolved issues and approves one plan, which finance converts into revenue and cost projections.
Getting Started
The first three cycles will be imperfect. Sales has never produced an 18-month forecast by family, and operations has never stated capacity in a form sales can read. The supply chain manager will facilitate the first cycles, keep the agenda to two hours and record every decision and its owner. A simple dashboard with a page for each family, showing forecast, plan, actual and inventory, will be built in a spreadsheet before any software is bought, so that the process proves itself first.
Product Families
Planning 1,900 models individually is impossible at this stage. Models are grouped into four families that share production resources: small welded cylinders, large welded cylinders, tie-rod cylinders and telescopic cylinders. Each family's plan is expressed in cylinders and in machining and welding hours.
Demand and Capacity
The demand plan for next year, in thousands of cylinders across all families: first quarter 38, second quarter 46, third quarter 30, fourth quarter 26, a total of 140. Regular capacity with the current workforce of about 290 production workers is about 33 a quarter, or 132 a year. Overtime can add up to about 6 a quarter. Beginning inventory is about 8.
Three Strategies
Chase: hire about 40 temporary workers for the second quarter and reduce hours in the second half. Estimated cost: hiring and training about $100,000, lower productivity of new workers about $120,000, layoff-related costs and lost goodwill about $100,000, roughly $320,000 in all, with quality risk from inexperienced welders.
Level: produce 35 a quarter all year, building inventory in the previous fall to cover the spring peak. Covering the second-quarter shortfall requires about 12 more cylinders in stock entering the year, adding holding cost and the risk that customers change designs before stock is used. Estimated cost: about $290,000, including holding and some obsolescence.
Mixed: regular production of 33 every quarter, overtime of 4 in the first quarter and 6 in the second, and inventory carried between quarters.
Spring demand is not a surprise; it arrives every year at the same time.
The Mixed Plan in Detail
First quarter: produce 37 (33 regular, 4 overtime); demand 38; ending inventory 7.
Second quarter: produce 39 (33 regular, 6 overtime); demand 46; ending inventory 0.
Third quarter: produce 33; demand 30; ending inventory 3.
Fourth quarter: produce 33; demand 26; ending inventory 10, which becomes the cushion for next spring.
Overtime of 10 thousand cylinders at a premium of about $18 a cylinder costs about $180,000. Holding cost at about $3 a cylinder a quarter on average inventories totaling 20 thousand cylinder-quarters adds about $60,000. Total: about $240,000, the lowest of the three, with experienced welders doing all the work. The second quarter ends with no buffer, so the S&OP team agreed to protect the largest customers by confirming their spring releases by January.
Disagreements and Decision Rights
In the first pre-meeting, sales wanted to commit to a new customer's 3,000-cylinder spring order; operations showed it would require overtime beyond the 6 per quarter limit. The executive meeting chose to accept 1,500 in the second quarter and 1,500 in the third, and the sales director negotiated that split with the customer. Tuomikangas and Kaipia (2014) proposed a framework for coordination in S&OP covering strategic alignment, leadership, roles and responsibilities, collaboration, metrics, IT and methods, emphasizing that clear decision authority is a core element. At Saginaw Valley, the president holds the final say and sales and operations share accountability for forecast accuracy and on-time delivery.
From the Family Plan to the Master Schedule
Once approved, each family's quarterly plan is split into months and then into models by the master scheduler, using customer releases for build-to-order models and stocking targets for distributor models. Week 3 develops that master schedule.
Measures
Forecast accuracy by family, on-time delivery, inventory against plan, overtime hours and plan stability, the share of the next month's plan that changes after approval, will be reviewed in every executive meeting.
Conclusion
A monthly S&OP cycle gives Saginaw Valley one agreed plan instead of three competing ones. Planning by family, the team compared chase, level and mixed strategies and chose a mixed plan of steady regular production, spring overtime and modest inventory, the least costly option at about $240,000 that also keeps experienced workers on every cylinder. Clear decision rights and shared measures turn the seasonal scramble into a predictable plan.
References
Oliva, R., & Watson, N. (2011). Cross-functional alignment in supply chain planning: A case study of sales and operations planning. Journal of Operations Management, 29(5), 434-448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2010.11.012
Thomé, A. M. T., Scavarda, L. F., Fernandez, N. S., & Scavarda, A. J. (2012). Sales and operations planning: A research synthesis. International Journal of Production Economics, 138(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.11.027
Tuomikangas, N., & Kaipia, R. (2014). A coordination framework for sales and operations planning (S&OP): Synthesis from the literature. International Journal of Production Economics, 154, 243-262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.04.026
What the OPS 405 Week 2 instructions ask
For Week 2, OPS 405 students usually explain sales and operations planning and develop or evaluate an aggregate plan. Prompts may ask students to describe the S&OP process, its steps and participants, the role of product families, how demand and supply are balanced and the strategies for matching production to demand, such as chase, level or mixed, with their costs. Many versions include a simple aggregate planning calculation. Use realistic demand and capacity figures, show the plan by period with inventory and capacity effects and support the discussion with operations and supply chain research cited in APA. Explain who decides and how disagreements are resolved.
How this OPS 405 Week 2 example is built
The sample paper sets up a monthly cycle with five steps: data gathering, a demand review led by sales, a supply review led by operations, a pre-meeting that prepares options and an executive meeting that decides. It groups about 1,900 cylinder models into four families and forecasts quarterly demand totaling about 140,000 cylinders, peaking in the second quarter. Regular capacity is about 33,000 a quarter. Three strategies are costed: chasing demand with temporary hiring, building inventory early to keep production level and a mixed plan using overtime in the first half and modest inventory. The mixed plan costs least and keeps service high. The paper ends with how the agreed family plan is broken down into the master schedule for individual models.
OPS 405 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
To earn a strong grade, an S&OP paper must show both process and numbers. Graders want the planning cycle laid out step by step, its participants and decision rights, the use of product families and a demand plan grounded in data. Credit goes to an aggregate plan by period that shows production, inventory and capacity use, a comparison of strategies with costs and a recommendation that follows from them. Explaining how the plan connects to the master schedule and to financial plans shows integration. Research on S&OP practice supports the analysis. Clear tables or lists, consistent figures and APA citations without errors complete the paper.
OPS 405 Week 2 help: mistakes to avoid
S&OP papers often describe the meetings but never produce a plan. Include at least a simple aggregate plan with numbers. Another frequent error is planning at the level of individual items, which is the master schedule's job; S&OP works with families. Students also compare strategies without costs, which leaves no basis for choosing. Estimate them. Some papers forget inventory carryover between periods or ignore capacity limits, producing plans that cannot work. Check that each period balances. Finally, describe how disagreements between sales and operations are settled, since that is where S&OP earns its value, and who has the last word. A tutor can check your aggregate plan arithmetic with you.
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OPS 405 Week 2 questions, answered
What does OPS 405 Week 2 usually cover?
It usually covers sales and operations planning: the monthly S&OP cycle, product families, balancing demand and supply and aggregate planning strategies such as chase, level and mixed.
Where can I find a free OPS 405 Week 2 sample paper?
The Week 2 paper above designs an S&OP cycle and compares aggregate plans for a seasonal hydraulic cylinder maker; it is free to read.
What is a chase strategy?
An aggregate planning strategy that changes production each period to match demand, usually by hiring, laying off or using temporary workers, keeping inventory low.
What is a level strategy?
A strategy that keeps production steady across periods and uses inventory or backorders to absorb differences between production and demand.
How does S&OP relate to the master production schedule?
S&OP sets the plan for product families over months; the master production schedule breaks that plan into specific items and quantities by week.
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