What happens when you merge leading technology and industry best practice? The best of both worlds and the promise of unlimited possibilities.
Supply Focus delivers on that promise by providing unlimited flexibility to meet your unique end-to-end supply chain management needs. Supply Focus handles large data volumes instantly and connects all collaborators to a single source!
Merchandise Planning
Merchandise Planning is all about having the right products, in the right place at the right time. Limiting overstock yet not running out of stock, finding that optimal balance between commercial and financial goals.
Demand Planning
Supply Focus starts from the demand sensing concept, allowing planners to start from the opportunity and plan by exception, using a driver-based approach. Planners can review a base prediction starting from an automated proposal and focus on the exceptions and manual overrides of things that only the planners know. No time is wasted keying in numbers. Focus can be on discussing the underlying drivers, marketing initiatives and product launches. Accuracy is the end goal that drives instant profitability.
Alignment
Throughout the organization different planners and departments will work with different forecasts and numbers at different levels (by product group, family, SKU, …) or from different angles (by channel, by shop, by country, by distributor, …). Consistent messaging requires a happy marriage of all these different aspects into a single composite plan.
Demand Sensing
Leverage all types of (Big) Data and Advanced Analytics, to predict who wants which product, where, and when. Predicting demand does not have to be limited to internal structured data. Demand sensing has the ability to take into account unstructured (e.g., social media, etc) and external data (e.g., market data, competitors, consumer info, etc). As opposed to standard or out-of-the-box time series algorithms, the Demand Sensing algorithm includes your business dynamics as well as your data structure to produce more accurate results. This approach allows you to maximize opportunity.
Production Planning
Evening out the requirements to deliver the correct products at the right time and working in the most efficient manner is treading a very thin line. There are plenty of constraints ranging from staffing, machine capacity, raw material availability, storage capacity, and what is the most efficient way to run the production. Decision optimization will not only balance constraints but target everything from on time delivery to stock levels and margin optimization. In an ever-changing reality with quickly evolving demand plans, production planning needs to be able to respond immediately, automatically, and optimally.
Inventory Planning
Inventory Planning means having the goods ready when clients ask for them as well as having the raw materials ready when production starts. In any integrated supply chain process, inventory planning takes a central role in between demand planning and production planning. It leads to the correct decisions being taken within the bigger picture such as whether to increase or decrease storage capacity or finding an equilibrium between storage buffer and stock investments.
Distribution
Planning and optimizing the distribution will be a very specific challenge and is different for every organization. With a wide spectrum of choices to be considered across all networks ranging from local to global distribution is a delicate balance between efficiency and meeting commitments and client expectations.
Supply Planning
Keep track of your suppliers: their quality, delivery time, volume conditions, and rates. Are your buying commitments in line with your demand plan, raw materials requirements, and overall purchasing strategy? When to buy and when to build, safeguarding your flexibility and delivery needs is integral to running a successful operation.
We leverage the infinite configurability of IBM Planning Analytics / TM1
IBM Planning Analytics with Watson (TM1) made a name for itself by introducing the concept of functional, multi-dimensional databases that are dynamic and lightning-fast. This feature is what makes the platform so powerful and it lends itself to complete customisation in every way that you can think of. You have infinite configurability to build a system that works for your unique organization. It stays true to the principles of robust financial planning and analytics but remains fully adjustable and adaptable in all the ways that matter.
Apliqo leverages this capability and takes it even further by providing an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for this configuration. All that power would be wasted if it wasn’t simple and efficient – so that’s what we set out to build. We’ve worked hard to remove as much friction and potential confusion as possible, giving you a blank canvas to build the financial system of your dreams.
Talk to us today and let’s overcome the challenge together.
When a system is unable to adapt and adjust to changing business circumstances, it can become a tremendous source of pain and frustration for all those who work with it. Things must go on, of course, and so users will resort to building tedious workarounds, simplifications, and shortcuts that only serve to kick the can down the road. Instead of dealing with the root cause of the problem, it creates a more complicated mess for the people who eventually take over those processes and workflows.
