Back in 2020, nearly every business in the world felt the impact of COVID-19 on their business, in one way or another, making the need for accurate planning and forecasting even greater.
Sales and operations planning, S&OP, is a vital process for any company as matching demand with supply is a key success factor. A typical S&OP process would include collecting historical data, plotting and identifying patterns, and then selecting the best-fitting forecasting technique. To this forecast, you then add qualitative/subjective information. The output serves to streamline and synchronize sales, operational and financial activities.
But what happens when supply chain disruptions occur, on both the supply and demand side, such as we have felt due to the pandemic and now war on Ukraine? The need for a Planning Solution becomes apparent. McKinsey says ‘Autonomous planning can help supply chains function more effectively in volatile environments, and with less direct human oversight and decision making required.’
Let go of spreadsheets
We know that for a lot of businesses Excel rules and planners carry on number crunching with different datasets, creating new macros and rules add-ons to the workbook each time. All of this is labor-intensive, and your business runs the risk of eventually encountering a corrupt file which could be catastrophic. What if there was a better way – a bolt-on to the ERP system that covered forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization.
At AGR Dynamics, we have developed our Forecasting, Demand Planning, and Inventory Optimisation solution over the past 20 years and now provide a world-class planning solution that no other can compare to.
It allows our clients to input their data and we automatically select the best fitting forecasting technique for your products. From the statistical forecast the user adds subjective estimation to future demand, once planned, the replenishment demands for the warehouse and stores are automatically updated and fully synchronized.
Before this new development, forecasts were only as good as the data they were based on: If your sales were constantly up and down and unpredictable, the forecasting system would replicate and predict this for the future ahead.
The ‘I’ is important
When the ‘I’ is added, SI&OP – Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning – is formed. Your inventory can now be optimized based on service-level objectives. Inventory planning with greater rigor can be applied across the entire time horizon to drive better purchasing decisions. This can then be fed into our system, enabling you to forecast and plan for the future and get a complete overview of your company in the present.
To assist with high level of planning and forecasting, you’ll need a tool that can analyze multiple time horizons across thousands of products to predict the rapidly fluctuating demand you’re dealing with. A powerful forecasting engine, such as AGR’s solution, can use predictive analytics to catch emerging trends and account for them in good time.
Unparallel forecasting accuracy is achieved by automatically choosing the best-fitted forecasting methodology, the one with the least number of forecasting errors, at the product level, ensuring that you don’t lose out by using a one-size-fits-all approach.
The supply chain planning software from AGR Dynamics entails top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out dimensions allowing you to slice and dice the data and plan the way you like. The system includes a ripple effect down to the SKU level, allowing you to stay high level and i.e., add +10% in one click, The forecast will proportionally increase all subsequent SKUs in line with how each product has been selling at each location.
In an uncertain world where overproduction cannot be tolerated and out-of-stock items can ruin your brand. This powerful tool enables you to deal with demand uncertainty and match supply with demand with integrated purchasing and inventory optimization. A complete supply chain solution.
Automating the planning process means that your team can free up time and apply their skills to more valuable tasks, such as supplier and/or customer relationship management, maturing your value chain along the way.
If you’re ready to take your forecasting and planning to the next level, make an appointment with us here and we’ll be happy to talk you through our system.
