Sales and Operations Planning: a systematic literature review

This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) through an extensive literature review. S&OP is a cross-functional process aimed at balancing supply and demand by integrating sales, marketing, production and finance into a unified operational plan. By reviewing key academic contributions, co-citation and bibliographic coupling analyses are conducted, with the resulting clusters visualized using VosViewer software. These clusters highlight the thematic similarities among documents, revealing significant research streams and interconnectinos within the S&OP literature. The findings emphasize the critical role of cross-functional integration, effective coordination mechanisms, and the need for robust demand planning and supply chain management practices to ensure successful S&OP implementation. This study provides valuable insights into the evolving research field of S&OP, offering a foundation for future studies to address current challenges and opportunities.