Supply Chain Management Special Technology Report
Karin Bursa, vice president of marketing
chain network. “In today’s up-and-down market this is a necessity,” she said. “We are also seeing the combination of supply chain solutions – for example demand planning, supply planning and inventory
optimisation – as an
unparalleled trio in the ability to boost visibility, increase forecast accuracy, align inventory investments, and accelerate inventory turns to reduce costs while improving service.”
Shaun Phillips, global product manager, supply chain planning, at Infor, reflects that the biggest development Infor has seen in
recent times has been the accelerated evolution of Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) – the latest evolution of which is also known as Integrated Business Planning. “Quite frankly, the growth in this area has exceeded our expectations,” said Phillips. This, he continued, has been driven largely by what he describes as a remarkable evolution in customer demands. “In the early stages, S&OP focused on getting better BI into operational plans and balancing supply to demand,” he said. “However, with the addition of work flow processes to automate and then optimise much of this balancing, businesses have been incredibly proactive and fused the S&OP ‘architecture’ with promotion campaigns, new product development
“
and even R&D (especially in the consumer goods / FMCG industry).” The ‘traditional’ S&OP processes, believes Phillips, have quickly become a comfort zone – and customers are now
questioning the boundaries.
If demand drops off in one channel between the time a purchase order is raised and the inventory arriving, retailers will want the ability to redirect that inventory to another channel, where demand may be stronger.
This is set against the context that S&OP buying behaviour differs, considers Phillips. “We regularly see customers approach with an S&OP strategy already under development and they ask us what point solutions they need to dive down to, in order to complete the next piece of that strategy. As a result, technology has had to evolve to offer a range of specific solutions. In addition to the initial planning and BI systems, the injection of workflow technology has been critical, and the ‘what-if’ engines of
optimisation/simulation have been part of the appeal to
www.logisticsit.com
FMCG businesses looking to integrate product portfolio planning and new product development into the S&OP. This has of course developed a huge requirement for integration.”
Manufacturers are being driven to provide better information and labelling on goods they ship, with an emphasis on their customers to provide better forecasts to meet customer demands.” – Michelle Campbell, RedPrairie.
Michelle Campbell, supply chain industry director at RedPrairie, cites end to end visibility and better forecasting as being key requirements within the modern SCM space. “Manufacturers are being driven to provide better information and labelling on goods they ship, with an emphasis on their customers to provide better forecasts to meet customer demands,” she said. Campbell added that customers are wanting to make
more immediate purchases and enjoy shorter lead times together with lower costs. She believes there is therefore a need for visibility into the supply chain in order to offer those services and streamline the supply chain process. Another key current talking point concerning SCM is fuel, according to Campbell. “Costs here are increasing, as are raw materials,” she said. So, in her view, better planning of transport is needed, while direct deliveries from manufacturers are also required.
Impact of Cloud and SaaS
For Razat Gaurav, senior vice president EMEA at JDA Software, the Cloud is becoming an increasingly important topic of discussion in the supply chain industry. As the economy continues to struggle, he believes more and more businesses are looking to the Cloud model as a way of delivering capabilities in a non-intrusive, fast-to-deploy, pay-as-you-go fashion with minimal costs; such as an on- demand model. As a result, he maintains that SCM vendors need to ensure they adapting, are able to provide services via the Cloud and are able to work successfully in the agile environment.
October 2011
MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT 11
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