PlanPro by AGR: Take Your Demand Planning to the Next Level

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October 15, 2024
8 min read
Woman using computer in a warehouse

If you’re looking to elevate your inventory management with more precise and agile demand planning, PlanPro by AGR is the tool you need. Built as an advanced module on top of Inventory IQ, PlanPro offers powerful features for sales forecasting, promotional planning, and connecting item histories—all designed to help you manage your inventory with greater precision and control.

Advanced sales planning for better decision making

PlanPro gives you access to sales planning that helps you make smarter decisions based on more than just historical data. You can plan sales at different levels—by item, vendor, or location—so you have a clear view of what’s been selling and what’s projected to sell in the future. This platform is perfect for supporting your S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning) processes, allowing you to fine-tune forecasts at both high and detailed levels.

What makes PlanPro stand out is that you’re not limited to relying solely on system-generated forecasts. If you know your business is going to experience a demand change that historical data won’t capture—such as a store expansion or a promotional campaign—you can override the statistical forecast and adjust the sales plan based on your knowledge. The system integrates these changes with your order proposals, ensuring that your demand planning is fully aligned with what’s happening in your business.

Connect items for smoother transitions

When you introduce new items into your inventory, transitioning from old to new can often cause disruptions in your forecasting and ordering. With PlanPro’s connected items feature, you can link the sales history of an outgoing item to a new one. This ensures that the new item gets a forecast based on the old one’s data, helping you avoid overstocking or under-ordering during the transition period.

The system also connects stock levels, so you won’t reorder the replacement item until the older product’s stock reaches a predefined threshold. This feature is particularly useful if you’re launching updated versions of existing products or phasing out older stock.

High-level and granular control over sales planning

With PlanPro, you have both high-level and granular control over your inventory. You can adjust the forecast for an entire store or an individual item group. For example, if you expect a 30% increase in sales of accessories in a specific store, you can apply that percentage change, and PlanPro will proportionally adjust the forecast for every SKU in that category.

You can also manage promotional planning directly in the system. If you’ve negotiated a deal with a supplier for specific items, you can create a plan to push those items at the right time. PlanPro integrates this with your sales plan, ensuring that your inventory levels match the forecasted demand during promotions.

Forecasting at the customer level

One of PlanPro’s most unique features is the ability to break down sales forecasts at the customer level. You can view detailed sales data for individual customers and even exclude specific customers from your sales history to refine your forecast. This is particularly useful if you’ve lost a major client or if a customer’s buying behavior has changed. For example, if a customer like a hospital no longer buys from you after losing a contract, you can remove that customer’s historical sales from future forecasts to prevent over-ordering.

Forecast profiles for new and seasonal items

Launching new items can be tricky when you don’t have historical data to rely on for forecasting. PlanPro addresses this with forecast profiles. You can create profiles for new items based on expected sales patterns—whether it’s a summer profile for seasonal items or a general forecast for new product categories. The system uses these profiles to generate initial forecasts, adjusting them as real sales data comes in.

This is especially powerful for seasonal items, which may have distinct sales peaks and valleys. You can set up forecast profiles that reflect seasonal demand, ensuring that your stock levels align with the actual sales cycle of these products.

Weekly forecasts for greater agility

For businesses that need to stay responsive to fast-changing demand, PlanPro offers weekly forecasting. Unlike traditional monthly forecasts, which divide the year into 12 periods, weekly forecasting splits it into 52 buckets. This approach is ideal for retail environments where demand shifts frequently, allowing you to adjust stock levels more quickly and accurately. Each week, the system incorporates the most recent sales data, making it easier to respond to short-term changes in demand.

Advanced forecasting settings

PlanPro also includes advanced forecasting settings that give you more control over how stockouts and other disruptions affect your inventory. For example, you can configure the system to assume that sales are lost during a stockout, meaning no additional orders will be placed for what wasn’t sold. Alternatively, you can set the system to account for missed sales, which tells PlanPro to increase future orders to make up for stockouts.

The system also features automatic stockout bridging, which enriches your forecast by estimating what you would have sold if stock had been available. This ensures that your forecasts remain accurate, even if stock disruptions occur.

Precision planning for optimal inventory management

PlanPro by AGR is your key to taking full control of your inventory and demand planning. Whether you need to connect item histories, plan for promotions, or manage customer-specific forecasts, PlanPro offers the tools you need to stay agile and responsive to market changes. The advanced forecasting capabilities—such as weekly forecasts, forecast profiles for new items, and stockout bridging—ensure that your inventory levels always match real-world demand.

With PlanPro, you’re not just reacting to demand—you’re anticipating it. Take the next step to book a demo and learn how PlanPro can help your business run smoother, more efficiently, and with fewer stockouts and overstock situations. Check out our pricing page for more information.

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