Unstable information transfers at the beginning of a project lead to risks and uncertainties in the project's development. In the yachting industry, it's known that the project's duration is long-term, and the costs are high. The impact of uncertainties regarding the maturity of information at the beginning of the project can bear enormous costs and delays at the end of the project. Information transfer lacks a consistent and uniform process from sales & design to operations. The success of the yacht-building process is increased by avoiding delays in delivering the yacht and reducing excessive extra costs. Using an information system between the different disciplines and/or departments can increase the success of the yacht-building process. The focus of this problem is at the beginning of a project on the information flow between the 'commercial team' and the 'project team'. This raises the question of how an information transfer framework can improve the exchange of information to avoid uncertainties in new-build yachts. The method for this research is a case study within a Dutch yacht-building company. Knowledge about the currently available Sales and Operations Planning process (S\&OP), luxury and complex Engineer-to-Order (ETO) environments, and Information Management will be gathered through literature research. The company's needs and requirements regarding an information framework are defined by a structured analysis of interviews both manually and in Atlas.ti. Combining these knowledge sources provides input for the design of the information transfer framework and recommendations for improving information transfer within the company. Finally, the Information Transfer Framework (ITF) is based on knowledge activities, which are activities of transferring knowledge and the drivers of why to share the knowledge. Recommendations for the company operating in the unique, luxurious, and complex engineer-to-order environment include improving collaboration between departments and processes, training in data management, balancing flexible and structured information, and increasing proactive problem-solving. The research contributes by integrating a useful Information Transfer Framework within the S&OP process in luxury and complex ETO environments.


Keywords: Information Management, Sales & Operations Planning (S\&OP) process, commercial, operational, information transfer framework, Engineer-to-order, Structured information sharing, luxury goods, and case study.