Adapting sales and operations planning to engineer-to-order complexity: a multifaceted information processing approach to managing uncertainty and equivocality

Key Points

• The research aims to develop a framework for adapting S&OP in engineer-to-order manufacturing to address customization challenges.
• Conducted a multiple-case study of four large ETO manufacturers
• Analyzed how firms design their S&OP processes
• Developed a theoretical framework integrating various organizational theories
• Effective S&OP design is contingent upon the firm's ETO archetype
• Successful technical systems rely on a healthy social environment
• Identified socio-behavioral ambiguities as distinct information processing requirements