Abstract
Background: The Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) environment faces increasing disruption from globalisation, geopolitical instability, and extreme demand and supply volatility, creating a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) landscape. In South Africa’s FMCG industry, macroeconomic challenges such as power shortages, currency fluctuations, and poor infrastructure intensify this pressure. At a micro level, organisations deploy internal strategies such as supplier rationalisation, just-in-time sourcing, and outsourcing to gain efficiencies that are intended to enhance their competitive advantage. However, these strategies may exacerbate an organisation’s vulnerability to operational disruptions as they limit an organisation’s supplier base, often resulting in single sources of supply with limited flexibility (Tang 2006; Munir et al., 2020; Ermes, Henderson, Staude & Niemann, 2022). They further focus on reduced inventory holding for working capital benefits which limits an organisation’s responsiveness where supply delays are encountered. Where operations are outsourced, management control diminishes. These disruptions often result in material supply constraints, production stoppages, and product shortages in the market. To ensure supply continuity, supply chain partners may collaborate effectively through integrative supply chain management processes.
Objectives: The main objective of the study is to explore how the S&OP process integrates supply chain risk management practices to manage supply-side risks in an FMCG organisation. The Organisational Information Processing Theory (OIPT) was adopted as a theoretical lens. To achieve the main objective, these secondary objectives were pursued:(I) investigated how the S&OP process framework supports risk management objectives, (ii) explored the types of operational risks facing an FMCG organisation and how they are identified, (iii) examined how the S&OP process proactively and reactively addressed supply risks and lastly (iv) investigated the role of collaboration within S&OP in enhancing the effectiveness of supply risk management strategies.
Methods: Through an exploratory qualitative case study design, the research collected primary data through semi-structured interviews from employees in Company Z, the selected case organisation, and analysed data using the Thematic Analysis Procedure...