Shifting customer demand has put many supply chains through turmoil as they struggle to respond. The likely cause is that most planning happens in a vacuum—on spreadsheets or in disconnected systems.
Supply chain planning is much more effective and your organization can be more responsive in an integrated environment, taking operational and financial data into consideration. This approach gives you:
A True, Holistic View
Integrated supply chain planning means you look at sales, marketing, distribution, manufacturing, inventory, and Point of Sales (POS) information across all locations and customers (segments) as well as product categories so there are relatively few “unknowns.” Everyone contributes to the plan so you gain a more realistic picture of what your demand and supply looks like, and how each group will need to deliver.
The Ability to Be Proactive
Your integrated supply plan allows you to see what will happen in next three to six to even eighteen months—and you can go as granular as weekly or daily plans. The key here is that everyone along the supply chain can see the plan so they know what’s happening. You can even incorporate customer feedback if you integrate with a CRM system.
An Operationalized Plan
An integrated supply chain planning system not only pulls data from various systems for a holistic view, but it also pushes data back to operational systems—to translate your plan into execution and to inform plans based on the operational reality. And you can perform this bi-directional update not just once a day but at a frequency that works for your business. What happens in the warehouse gets reflected in the plan like inventory levels, raw materials, order changes, etc. This is what gives you lightning speed response times when changes happen.
The reality today is you must be able to deliver what your customers want, faster, better, and at a higher quality than your competitors or you will struggle to retain them. Integrated supply chain planning that works with your other systems, like CRM, ERP, and beyond, enables you to turn on a dime if that’s what your customers’ demand.
End-to-end supply chain planning is key to remaining competitive in today’s business climate and recent research shows that the use and accessibility of data is separating the laggards from the leaders. Integrating DemandCaster planning software with your ERP can help you achieve peak performance.
