Operations & Supply ChainPlanning & Forecasting

AI Prompts for Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)

S&OP fails in predictable ways: the demand review becomes a sales forecast argument, the supply review arrives without options, and the executive meeting reviews slides instead of making decisions. The cycle works when each step produces a specific artifact for the next — a consensus demand plan, a constrained supply plan, a list of gaps with costed options, and a decision log.

These prompts help build those artifacts. They assume you already have a demand plan and some view of supply; they will not generate either from nothing. The most valuable one is usually the gap-closure prompt, because it forces the trade-offs — cost, service, inventory, risk — to be written down before the meeting rather than argued in it.

Before you use these

Have these ready to replace the highlighted [variables]:

Consensus demand plan by family and month
Supply capacity and constraints (production, supplier, labor, capex) for the same horizon
Current and projected inventory
Financial targets the plan must reconcile to (revenue, margin, working capital)

The prompts

1. Prepare the demand–supply reconciliation pack
2. Generate gap-closure options with trade-offs
3. Run the executive S&OP meeting and log decisions
4. Prepare the demand review

1. Prepare the demand–supply reconciliation pack

Best forTurning demand and supply data into a one-page view of where the plan does not balance.

Inputs needed

Demand plan
Supply plan / capacity
Inventory position
Targets

How to use itGive both plans at the same granularity. Ask the model to show the gap in units, weeks of cover and financial terms.

Expected outputReconciliation table by family and month, gap classification, and the questions to answer before the supply review.

You are preparing the reconciliation step of a monthly S&OP cycle.

Consensus demand plan: [family × month, units]
Supply plan / capacity: [family or resource × month, units or hours]
Opening inventory and policy: [units, target weeks of cover]
Financial plan: [revenue and margin by month, if relevant]

Produce:
1. Reconciliation table: for each family and month — demand, supply, projected inventory (opening + supply − demand), weeks of cover versus target, and the gap.
2. Classify each gap: short-term shortage, sustained under-capacity, over-supply/inventory build, or financial gap (plan balances in units but misses revenue or margin).
3. Highlight the first month each gap becomes binding and how many months of lead time remain to act.
4. Convert the gaps to financial terms where possible: revenue at risk, excess inventory value, margin effect.
5. List the questions the supply review must answer, ordered by the size and urgency of the gap.

Show the projection arithmetic. Do not assume capacity flexibility that was not stated. If demand and supply are at different granularities, say what mapping you applied and its weakness.

2. Generate gap-closure options with trade-offs

Best forArriving at the executive meeting with costed choices instead of a problem statement.

Inputs needed

Gap list from reconciliation
Lever constraints (overtime rules, supplier flexibility, price policy)

How to use itGive the model the real constraints on each lever. Options that ignore them waste meeting time.

Expected outputOption table per gap with cost, service, inventory and risk effects, and a recommended option with the decision required.

Act as a supply chain planning lead preparing options for an executive S&OP decision.

Gap: [family, months, size, type]
Available levers and constraints: [overtime capacity and cost, alternate suppliers and lead times, inventory pre-build, demand shaping (price, allocation), outsourcing, capex with timing]

For each gap, generate 3–5 options spanning supply-side, demand-side and accept-the-gap. For every option state:
- Mechanism and timing (when it takes effect relative to when the gap binds)
- Cost: one-off and recurring, with the basis for the estimate
- Effect on service level and on which customers or channels
- Effect on inventory and working capital
- Risk: what could make it fail, and reversibility
- Owner and decision needed

Then recommend one option or combination per gap and state the single decision the executive meeting must make, phrased as a yes/no or a choice between named alternatives.

Do not present an option that violates a stated constraint. Where a cost is unknown, give the range and what would pin it down — do not fill it with a plausible number.

3. Run the executive S&OP meeting and log decisions

Best forAn agenda that gets to decisions, and a record that survives the month.

Inputs needed

Reconciliation summary
Options
Prior month's decisions and status

How to use itUse before the meeting for the agenda and pre-read, and after it to convert notes into the decision log.

Expected outputTime-boxed agenda with decisions required, a one-page pre-read, and a decision log format populated with what was decided, deferred and assumed.

You are supporting the executive S&OP meeting.

Inputs: [reconciliation summary, option list, last month's decision log with status, KPIs (forecast accuracy, service, inventory)]
Meeting length: [minutes] Attendees: [roles]

Part 1 — Agenda and pre-read:
- Open with performance versus last month's plan and status of prior decisions (no more than 10% of the time).
- Sequence the gaps by decision urgency, allocating time in proportion to the financial effect.
- For each gap: the one-paragraph situation, the options table, the recommended option, the decision required. Nothing else.
- Close with assumptions the plan now depends on and the date they will be tested.

Part 2 — Decision log (to complete after the meeting from my notes: [paste notes]):
For each item: decision made / deferred (with what is needed to decide) / rejected; owner; date effective; the assumption it rests on; the KPI that will show whether it worked.

Keep the pre-read under one page per gap. Flag any item on the agenda that is a discussion, not a decision, and propose moving it to the demand or supply review instead.

4. Prepare the demand review

Best forGetting sales, marketing and planning to one unconstrained demand number with the disagreements visible.

Inputs needed

Statistical baseline
Sales and marketing inputs
Last month's plan vs actual

How to use itRun before the reconciliation prompt. Bring the functional inputs in whatever form they arrive; the model structures them into a review pack with the differences highlighted rather than averaged away.

Expected outputDemand review pack: baseline vs functional views by family, the gaps and their stated reasons, assumptions register, and the decisions the review must make.

Act as a demand planner preparing the demand review step of the S&OP cycle for [month].

Statistical baseline: [family × month]
Sales view: [family × month with reasons for differences: pipeline, wins/losses, pricing]
Marketing view: [promotions, launches, campaigns with expected effect and timing]
Last cycle: [plan vs actual by family; explanation for the largest misses]
Financial plan: [revenue by month if the demand plan must reconcile to it]

Produce:
1. Comparison table by family and month: baseline, sales view, marketing-adjusted view, prior plan, and the spread between them.
2. For each material difference: the stated reason, the evidence class (measured / pipeline-backed / opinion), and the owner.
3. Assumptions register: every assumption embedded in the functional views, with the date it will be testable.
4. Last-cycle learning: where the prior consensus beat or lost to the baseline, and what that implies for how much weight the functional views should carry this cycle.
5. Financial reconciliation: whether the resulting unconstrained plan meets the financial plan, and where the gap sits by family.
6. Decisions for the review meeting: the specific numbers to agree or dispute, in order of value at stake. Do not pre-average the views — the review exists to resolve them.

Keep the pack to two pages. Flag any functional input that is a target rather than a forecast.

The monthly cycle at a glance

Where each of the four prompts sits, and what each step must hand to the next.

Step	Owner	Input	Output	Typical timing
Demand review	Demand planning + sales + marketing	Statistical baseline, functional views, last month's performance	Unconstrained consensus demand plan, assumptions register	Week 1
Supply review	Supply planning + operations + procurement	Consensus demand plan, capacity, supplier constraints, inventory	Constrained supply plan, capacity and supplier gaps	Week 2
Reconciliation	S&OP lead + finance	Both plans, financial plan	Gap list with costed options, recommended decisions	Week 3
Executive S&OP	Leadership team	Reconciliation pack, decision log	Decisions, owners, assumptions to test, updated plan of record	Week 4

The most common failure is the reconciliation step arriving with problems but no options. The gap-closure prompt exists to prevent that.

Related prompts

Logical next step

After this, most operations teams move on to Demand Forecasting.

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