- Supply Chain Management
- Sales & Operations Planning
Supply Chain Excellence (SCX) for Demand Planning
Boost forecast accuracy and build consensus demand plans directly within your SAP system
Improve your forecasting accuracy and operational efficiency with our Demand Planning solution. Tailored for dynamic markets, our tool leverages sophisticated algorithms to process trends and seasonality, empowering your team to make data-driven decisions. Enhance sales potential and encourage seamless collaboration across departments, setting a new standard for business planning and accountability.
How can we handle unexpected market changes and maintain accurate inventory levels?
Integrate real-time data into your demand planning to swiftly adapt to market changes, helping ensure your inventory levels are always aligned with current demand trends.
How do we reduce the time and resources spent on manual forecasting processes?
Our advanced forecasting tools automate data analysis and reduce the need for manual input, saving significant time and resources while increasing efficiency.
How can we ensure our sales, production, and procurement teams are aligned with demand forecasts?
Facilitate seamless collaboration between sales, production, and procurement by providing a unified, transparent view of demand forecasts, ensuring all teams are aligned and working towards common goals.
Demand Planning benefits
Seamless SAP Integration
Leverage existing data in SAP without the need for complex interfaces or data migration.
Advanced Forecasting Techniques
Utilize 20+ forecasting models to handle complex patterns, seasonality, and promotional impacts more effectively.
Data Consistency and Accuracy
Ensure that demand planning is based on the most current and accurate information with real-time data from SAP.
Scenario Planning and Simulation
Test multiple 'what-if' scenarios within your SAP system and understand the potential impacts of different decisions.
Reduced Planning Time and Effort
Reduce manual efforts with automated processes that free up time to focus on strategic analysis and decision-making.
How our Demand Planning solution works
Forecast planning sheet
The planning sheet is the foundation of our Demand Planning solution. It enables users to compile and analyze relevant forecast data effectively. Planners can adjust and review forecasts in a user-friendly interface, directly within SAP.
Planning hierarchy
Our solution utilizes a structured hierarchy that categorizes data into different levels such as countries, regions, plants, brands, customers, and more. This helps in organizing the forecast data more systematically and supports more granular analysis.
Customizable planning scenarios
Our solution supports flexible planning scenarios, such as a 12-month rolling forecast based on historical data (like the past 36 months, for example). This adaptability allows businesses to tailor their forecasting process to their specific needs.
Planning execution
After setting up the initial parameters, the system executes the forecast, taking into account all the defined settings and data sources. This results in a consolidated forecast that can be reviewed and adjusted as needed.
Additional Demand Planning features
Material sets
Material sets are assigned to the hierarchy and ensure your forecasting aligns correctly with your business's unique structure and needs.
Copy rules and versioning
These are small programs within our solution that help import historical data and manage different versions of forecasts. This facilitates data management and ensures that users can keep track of changes and updates.
Data sources
The software pulls data from various sources within your SAP environment, such as standard SAP tables, material master consumption, and historical data from our Procurement solution. It also supports data import from external sources like Excel.
Forecast procedures and algorithms
| Forecast Procedure | Constant | Trend | Seasonal | Seasonal Trend | Irregular |
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| Moving Average |  |
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| Moving Average with Trend | |
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| Median |  |
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| First Order Exponential Smoothing | |
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| Second Order Exponential Smoothing | |
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| Winters Additive | |
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| Winters Multiplicative | |
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| Seasonal Factors | |
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| Seasonal | |
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| Croston | |
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| Bootstrap | |
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| Linear Regression | |
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| Winters Trend | |
Applicable industries
Manufacturing
Challenges: Overproduction, underutilization of resources, and high inventory costs.
Demand Planning Benefits: Offers precise demand forecasts to streamline production planning, improve resource allocation, and minimize inventory waste, leading to significant cost savings and enhanced operational efficiency.
Pharmaceuticals
Challenges: Maintaining optimal inventory levels for essential medications and medical supplies without causing shortages or overstock.
Demand Planning Benefits: Delivers accurate demand planning to ensure the availability of critical healthcare products, enabling providers to meet patient needs without excess inventory, crucial for life-saving care and treatments.
Electronics
Challenges: Rapid technological advancements, short product life cycles, and volatile consumer demand.
Demand Planning Benefits: Delivers dynamic forecasting capabilities that adapt to the fast-paced nature of the electronics market. Helps electronics manufacturers and retailers anticipate consumer trends, manage the end-to-end lifecycle of products efficiently, and enable them to meet demand without overinvesting in rapidly changing product lines.
Food and Beverage
Challenges: Dealing with perishable goods, varying shelf life, and fluctuating consumer demand.
Demand Planning Benefits: Provides detailed demand forecasts that help manage perishable inventory efficiently, reducing spoilage and waste while ensuring that supply meets demand, particularly during peak seasons.
Consumer Goods
Challenges: Anticipating consumer trends, managing seasonal fluctuations, and launching new products successfully.
Demand Planning Benefits: Offers detailed demand analysis and predictive insights to help consumer goods companies forecast market trends, manage inventory through peak seasons, and plan effectively for new product launches, ensuring products are available where and when needed.
FAQs
Schedule your live demo today
Discover how SCX for Demand Planning can optimize your demand forecasting processes within SAP. Schedule a personalized demo with our expert team to explore our solution's full capabilities and see how it can benefit your business.
- See SCX for Demand Planning in action: Get a comprehensive walkthrough of our key features and functionalities tailored to your specific needs.
- Ask the experts: Have your questions answered by our knowledgeable team and learn how SCX for Demand Planning can address your unique challenges.
- Tailored recommendations: Receive personalized insights and recommendations based on your business requirements and goals.
Contact us to schedule your demo
- Email: usa@ifm.com
- Phone: +1 (470) 909-4011
- Schedule online: Submit the form below