Characteristics and organizational constraints of collaborative planning

Inter-departmental co-ordination is considered an important factor for the success of a company. Individuals predominantly plan according to the goals of their own department. In cooperative relationships, however, they also try to create possibilities for the optimization of the planning for the other individual. This paper analyzes the influence of organizational structures on inter-departmental collaborative demand planning. Psychological planning theories were applied to deduce typical collaborative planning requirements. This permitted an evaluation of the quality of inter-departmental planning processes. The following characteristics were identified: communication of anticipated events, knowledge of reference field characteristics, goal agreements, negotiation of alternatives, recognition of planning adequacy, monitoring and error diagnosis, co-ordination of opportunistic planning and finally common reflection and decision process for plan cancellation. For a field study three companies with different demand planning structures were selected. Using the critical incident technique, individuals were asked to describe events in which helping or hindering activities in the intra- and interdepartmental context occurred. These events were analyzed with respect to the derived characteristics of collaborative planning. The results indicated the usefulness of the chosen characteristics for describing crucial aspects of (un)successful collaborative planning. There was tentative evidence also that team-oriented structures including representatives of various departments are more suitable for the management of a high amount of planning uncertainty than department-oriented structures. Furthermore, relationships between organizational design, quality of collaborative planning, logistical performance and satisfaction with inter-departmental communication could be demonstrated.