Supply Planning and Management

Consumers are not only growing more impatient for product, they are also demanding more competitive prices for their products. This means that companies are tasked with driving costs out of every part of their organization so that the consumer can be presented with the most competitive price. It is becoming increasingly important to plan all manufacturing and procurement activities far enough in advance to ensure that labor, materials, and production capacity can all be obtained at the lowest possible cost. Companies must then execute detailed production and purchasing plans that optimize the manufacturing and distribution network within the company to deliver lowest cost products to the consumer. All this while maintaining the highest possible margin for the company.

Following are the specific Supply Planning and Management service offerings provided by Plan4Demand:

Service Offering Value to Client
Rough Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP) / Management – Plan4Demand will offer RCCP solutions to aid customers’ ability to support near and long-term capacity planning to ensure that they can meet demand utilizing their available capacity both across facilities, and across production lines. This type of capacity planning is a critical step for all companies that wish to support a Sales & Operations Planning Process (S&OP), complex production networks, or utilize a variety of contract manufacturers. These solutions all drive value in the organization by yielding the highest returns on the physical production assets available to the company. In the case of contract manufacturing, these solutions (along with those related to Supplier Collaboration & Contract Management below) maximize the value and terms within the supplier contracts.
Master Production Scheduling (MPS) / Detailed Scheduling – It is critical for any production-focused company to drive their Rough Cut Capacity plan down to a detailed level to ensure that the facility is operating at its highest efficiency. These types of production scheduling efforts ensure that the correct products are being produced on the correct line, at the correct time, and in the proper order. It is in these details that companies with heavy production costs find their value, as these projects maximize the output of the production facility as well as drive the production cost per unit down. Further, they are key enablers of both sourcing and Available to Promise projects.
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Sourcing – MRP and sourcing have often been considered a supply chain execution, rather than a core supply chain planning area. However, as companies evolve their supply chains and continue to require efficiencies, it becomes critical to blend the planning and execution areas of supply planning to ensure an optimal result is attained. This includes building the concepts of strategic sourcing and materials management into the plan to ensure that the correct safety stocks of materials are maintained, and in the correct locations. MRP and sourcing efforts typically drive value in the organization by reducing the total material inventory down, reducing COGS on materials, and reducing lead times associated to overall production of finished goods.
Collaborative Supply Planning / Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) / Supplier Contract Management – As company’s supply chains grow more complex, there is an emerging need to work across companies to drive additional efficiencies to the bottom line. Plan4Demand can aid its customers in effectively arranging supplier collaboration processes that allow both companies to lower costs and reduce inventories. Further, Plan4Demand can assist the client in defining the appropriate contract terms to ensure that the benefits of such an effort are appropriately shared. By sharing forecast information each company can eliminate risk associated to fulfilling each other’s needs – thus reducing the need for additional safety stocks at the supplier and improved fulfillment for the customer. Not only are these efforts a win-win for both parties, they represent an opportunity to grow the Plan4Demand customer base, as each effort brings us in contact with a new set of potential clients.
Postponement Strategies and Make to Order (MTO) – Another way that corporations are trying to manage down their costs and inventories is to convert some low volume products to low-risk make to order processes. Plus, many companies are utilizing postponement strategies to delay critical supply chain activities until actual customer demand is revealed, thereby eliminating the cost of demand variance while maintaining fast response. Each of these types of projects focus on supply chain wide process changes that allow for significant reduction in finished goods inventory, reduction in COGS, and often improving customer fulfillment rates.
Available to Promise (ATP) / Capable to Promise (CTP) – Both ATP and CTP drive to provide specific delivery date response to customer order enquiries based on product availability. Each generates available quantities of the requested product, and delivery due dates, while also determining what sourcing and production decisions must be made to ensure that the promise can be met. Therefore, these projects support order promising and fulfillment, aiming to manage demand and match it to production plans. ATP / CTP projects drive bottom line value quickly in organizations where customers have the right to charge-backs or rebates based on service level agreements. Further, solid performance against commitments drives customer loyalty which, in turn, drives higher revenues and market share.