Correct Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
Sales and operations Planning/Aggregate planning - Answer A process to develop tactical plans
by integrating marketing plans for new and existing products with the management of the
supply chain. The process brings together all the plans for the business into one integrated set
of plans.
Strategic Planning - Answer Planning that takes place at the highest levels of the firm,
addressing needs that might not arise for years into the future.
Tactical planning - Answer Planning that covers a shorter period, usually 12 to 24 months out,
although the planning horizon may be longer industries with very long lead times.
Detailed planning and control - Answer Planning that covers time periods ranging from weeks
to just a few hours.
Top-down planning - Answer An approach to S&OP in which a single, aggregated sales forecast
drives the planning process. For top down planning to work, the mix of products or services
must be essentially the same from one time period to the next or the products or services to be
provided must have very similar resource requirements.
Bottom-up planning - Answer An approach to S&OP that is used when the product/service mix
is unstable and resource requirements vary greatly across the offerings. Under such conditions,
managers will need to estimate the requirements for each set of products or services separately
and then add them up to get an overall picture of the resource requirements
Planning Values - Answer Values that decision makers use to translate a sales forecast into
resource requirements and codetermine the feasibility an cost of alternative sales and
operations planning.
Level production plan - Answer A S&OP in which production is held constant and inventory is
used to absorb differences between production and the sales forecast.
Chase Production Plan - Answer A S&OP plan in which productions changed in each time
period to match the sales forecast.
, Load Profile - Answer A display of future capacity requirements based on released and/or
planned orders over a given span of time.
Net Cash Flow - Answer The net flow of dollars into or out of a business over some time
period. (Net cash flow= cash inflow-cash outflow)
Rolling planning horizon - Answer A planning approach in which an organization updates its
S&OP plan regularly, such as on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Yield management - Answer An approach that services commonly use with highly perishable
"products," in which prices are regularly adjusted to maximize total profit.
Tiered workforce - Answer A strategy used to vary workforce levels, in which additional full-
time or part-timeemployees are hired during peak demand periods, while a smaller permanent
staff in maintained year-round.
Offloading - Answer A strategy for reducing and smoothing out workforce requirements that
involves having customers perform part of the work themselves.
Optimization model - Answer A class of mathematical models used when the user seeks to
optimize some objective function subject to some constraints.
Objective function - Answer A quantitative function that an optimization model seeks to
optimize
Constraint - Answer A quantifiable condition that places limitations on the set of possible
solutions. The solution to an optimization model is acceptable only if it does not break any of
the constraints.
Inventory - Answer According to APICS, "those stocks or items used to support production
(raw materials and work-in-process items), supporting activities (maintenance repair, and
operating supplies) and customer service (finished goods and spare parts).
Cycle Stock - Answer Components or products that are received in bulk by downstream
partner, gradually used up, and then replenished again in bulk by the upstream partner.