Strike the right balance between assets and demand – every time.
One of the most critical tasks for any manufacturing organization is balancing assets (e.g., capacity, materials, people) with demand. Planners must determine how best to meet the demand given (1) available assets, (2) the production and distribution network, and (3) business policies.
Typically, organizations that automate supply planning can achieve a number of key benefits:
A manual, high level model where the planner makes the decision on how to align key assets with the demand. It helps the planner match supply with demand and highlight any imbalances. It is typically done at an aggregate level and in monthly buckets over the medium horizon (6-18 months).
A heuristic-based planning module where the plan is derived by following a sequence of rules. This is the better approach when there are not too many ‘where, when, how’ choices, or for large scale tactical decision making in the medium term (13-26 weeks).
An optimisation-based planning module which is well suited when there are many supply choices in the system, such as where, when and how to manufacture or how to allocate the limited raw material supply. This variation is typically used in the medium to long term (6 months – 5 years).
Within each approach there are a number of variations. Determining which approach and which variation works best for a firm at a point in time is always situation specific. Give us a call and let us help you answer these questions for your situation; or schedule a demo from the link below.
