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S&OP MasterClass

S&OP MasterClass

By: Roima – Perito IBP
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Managing supply and demand comes with ever-increasing complexity. With thousands of part numbers, hundreds of suppliers and a market that constantly changes, supply chain and operations management is a real challenge.

In this S&OP MasterClass™ podcast series, we take a head dive into the complexity, and give you concrete advise on, how to better manage your sales and operations planning.

We’ll talk about automation, forecasting, inventory planning and integrated business planning – and everything S&OP-geeky in between.

Your host is Søren Hammer Pedersen, CCO of Roima – Perito IBP, who will be interviewing supply chain experts, automation professionals and exciting people who have their S&OP figured out.

For more information on this S&OP MasterClass™, go to our website.

This podcast is brought to you by Roima.
This podcast is produced by Montanus.Roima Intelligence Inc. Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Monthly S&OP | Balancing and Executive Review: How to Stop Strategic Decisions Being Made on the Warehouse Floor | Ep. 24

    Monthly S&OP | Balancing and Executive Review: How to Stop Strategic Decisions Being Made on the Warehouse Floor | Ep. 24
    May 13 2026
    Most supply chain organisations can produce a demand plan.
    Many can build a supply plan.

    Where the wheels tend to come off is in the two weeks that follow, the balancing week, where you reconcile what the business wants with what it can actually produce, and the executive S&OP, where senior leaders are asked to commit to the trade-offs.
    Skip these two steps, and strategic decisions quietly slip to whoever shouts the loudest in the warehouse or the sales region. Keep them, and your planning starts connecting to your strategy.

    In this second installment of the S&OP MasterClass from Roima, Søren Hammer Pedersen sits down again with Benjamin Obling, COO of PERITO IBP, to walk through weeks three and four of the classical S&OP process.

    The conversation moves from practical visualisation tricks (a simple green, amber, red capacity grid will take you surprisingly far) to the more political work of getting C-level executives to give guidance instead of reactive orders.

    If you plan supply chains for a living, or you carry the CFO, CCO or CEO title and find yourself making scattered, one-off calls on inventory, service levels and market priorities, this episode will give you a clear mental model for how those decisions should be surfaced, framed and committed to inside a monthly rhythm.

    Chapters
    00:00 Cold open, the cost of skipping the balancing step
    01:23 Welcome to the S&OP MasterClass and recap of part one
    03:28 The four weeks of the S&OP process at a glance
    05:56 Why weeks three and four actually matter
    11:07 Visualising capacity, bottlenecks and stock projections
    18:01 Extending the footprint to include your suppliers
    20:23 Running the balancing meeting and handing over to sales
    22:23 Deciding what to mitigate now and what to escalate
    27:10 The purpose of the executive S&OP meeting
    29:01 How to motivate the C-level to show up
    35:16 Turning decisions into operational plans the same week
    37:58 The fifth step, adhering to the plan you just agreed
    42:07 Getting started without inventing the wheel

    Production
    This podcast is brought to you by Roima.
    This podcast is produced by Montanus.
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Monthly S&OP | Get chaos or get the first weeks right | Ep. 23

    Monthly S&OP | Get chaos or get the first weeks right | Ep. 23
    Apr 15 2026
    Most companies know they need an S&OP process. Few have one that actually works.

    The gap between having the meetings and having a functioning integrated business plan is where most organisations quietly struggle, and where the biggest operational and commercial risks accumulate.

    In this episode of the S&OP MasterClass, Søren Hammer Pedersen sits down with Benjamin Obling – a practitioner with 16 years of focused S&OP experience across industries and organisations – to work through the first two weeks of a monthly S&OP cycle. Not the theory.
    The actual steps: who does what, when, with which tools, and what goes wrong when any of it is missing.

    Benjamin brings the perspective of someone who has seen both extremes up close: companies with sophisticated IBP tools and no process, and companies with well-structured processes and nothing to put in them. His argument is that neither works alone. The foundation of a reliable S&OP process is built in weeks one and two, in demand planning and supply planning, the engine room of the S&OP process.

    Get those two weeks right, and the rest of the cycle becomes a decision-making conversation grounded in data. Get them wrong, and you spend weeks three and four firefighting.

    This episode is the first in a two-part series. Today covers demand planning and supply planning. Part two will go into the balancing and executive S&OP stages.

    In This Episode
    • Why having an S&OP process without the right data tools, or the right tools without a process, produces equally poor results
    • The four main steps of a monthly S&OP cycle, and why skipping the first two guarantees chaos in the last two
    • The difference between minor and major forecast overrides and why most minor adjustments are a waste of time
    • Why inventory planning is a strategic decision disguised as a technical one and the risks of leaving it to a few specialists
    • How to run a supply-side MRP simulation before uploading your demand plan to the ERP system
    • The two non-negotiables for a high-functioning S&OP process: strong data tools, and clear process ownership
    Episode contents
    00:07 Recap: the four phases of S&OP
    08:49 Why balancing week matters — and why most companies skip it
    15:20 The "loudest voice wins" problem in demand prioritisation
    30:03 Simulating MRP before it hits the ERP system
    31:47 Extending visibility up and downstream: suppliers in the picture
    34:26 Rule of delegation: what to resolve in week 3 vs. escalate to week 4
    36:18 Outputs of the balancing week
    25:37 How to get C-level to actually show up and engage
    27:25 Structuring the executive meeting: State of the Union + decisions
    09:17 Avoiding the post-planning firefighting trap
    37:22 The fifth step: following up on actual planning behaviour
    38:56 Summary & closing thoughts
    39:13 Outro & call to action

    Production
    This podcast is brought to you by Roima.
    This podcast is produced by Montanus.
    Show More Show Less
    40 mins
  • How to balance AI in supply chain planning with human judgement

    How to balance AI in supply chain planning with human judgement
    Feb 11 2026
    AI is moving fast and it’s changing the way supply chains are run. But a big question remains: how do you tap into its power without losing control or replacing the judgment you and your team bring to the table?

    In this episode of the S&OP MasterClass, Søren Hammer Pedersen sits down with Benjamin Obling, a supply chain expert with 16 years at Roima.

    You’ll hear real examples of how companies are using AI in demand forecasting and inventory planning without cutting people out of the process. If you’ve been wondering how to get AI working for you, without creating blind spots or overreliance, you’ll want to listen in. We talk about practical ways to build trust, add smart governance, and use AI where it makes sense while keeping human judgment front and center.

    In this episode, you'll learn about:
    1. How to balance AI automation with human judgment in planning.
    2. Key AI-driven improvements in demand forecasting and inventory management.
    3. Importance of trust and governance in adopting AI strategies.
    4. How to determine what to automate and where humans are needed.
    5. Embracing AI while maintaining control through guardrails and alerts.
    Episode content
    00:44 The rise of AI in supply chain planning
    03:39 Current challenges in AI integration for planning
    04:51 Trust and governance in AI predictions
    07:03 Finding starting points for AI automation in planning
    08:45 Leveraging AI across different planning disciplines
    09:13 Identifying critical areas for human oversight
    12:19 Balancing automation and human judgment
    16:56 Knowing when to trust AI predictions
    19:18 Ensuring transparency in AI-driven processes
    23:36 Impacts of AI on sales and operations planning
    29:10 Future outlook for AI in supply chain planning

    Production
    This podcast is brought to you by Roima.
    This podcast is produced by Montanus.
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins
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