SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING, DEMAND PLANNING, AND INVENTORY PLANNING.
Supply chain planning provides strategic and tactical
planning that is forward looking with an outlook for the future. Supply chain
planning deals with supply, distribution, manufacturing, planning, production
scheduling, demand planning, supply chain collaboration, and supply chain
network design. Supply chain planning applications coordinate assets to
optimize the delivery of goods and services, and information from supplier to
consumer, and balancing supply to demand. Its objective is to balance supply and
demand in a manner that achieves the financial and service objectives of the
enterprise. Supply Chain Planning also includes strategies such as just in time
inventory, where more precise planning is allow for more flexible inventory storage requirement.
Supply chain planning and supply chain management in general, is valuable to
modern businesses. They help businesses automate, control and monitor their
processes using modern tools, which help them save money and allow them to work
more efficiently in competitive fields and markets. The following are the
benefits of supply chain planning:
·
Reduction in lost sales
·
Reduce out-of-stocks
·
Lower inventory requirements to support target
service levels
·
Faster fulfillment cycles times.
·
Reduced working capital requirements.
Demand planning,
the importance of demand planning is to ensure operations are timely, efficient
and cost effective. Effective demand planning can guide users to improve the
accuracy of revenue forecasts, align inventory levels with peaks and troughs in
demand, enhancing profitability for a given product. Demand planning is using
forecasts and experience to estimate demand for various items at various points
in the supply chain. Effective demand planning then requires a variety of information’s
like; qualitative, quantitative, timely, usable, and as accurate as possible,
for proper forecasting of the products. Demand planning can save your company
money and also increase your profits.
Advantages of demand planning:
·
Efficient
supply chain scheduling: this helps you plan scheduled maintenance
shutdowns away from busy sales periods and have adequate materials and labor on
hand throughout the year. When you know about a coming spike in demand, you can
contact customers who don’t have time sensitive inventory needs and ask them to
accept orders earlier or later than a specific time when you know will be busy.
·
Adequate
cash flow: knowing the peaks of demand helps you better in managing your
cash flow, ensuring you have enough money on hand to pay bills. An inability to
make your products leads to an inability to supply your customer. Demand Planning lets you reserve cash or negotiates bridge loans or credit terms in
advance.
·
More
accurate budgeting: the more accurately you can forecast demand, including
the timing of your sales, the more accurate you can be with budgeting. If you
have a flexible budget, such as tying marketing spending to sales, you can
shift paid marketing efforts such as advertising and free marketing efforts
such as a social media campaign between slow and busy periods.
Inventory Planning,
this is the process an organization adopts to determine the optimal quantity
and timing of inventory to align it with sales and production capacity.
Inventory planning has a direct impact on a company’s cash flow and profit
margins especially for smaller businesses that rely upon a quick turnover of
goods or materials. Every organization that is engaged in production, sale or
trading of products holds inventory in one or the other form. For instance, an
organization dealing in manufacturing and production may hold inventory of raw
materials, spare parts, and finished goods. All sectors of an organization
ought to have their inventory application concerning the products they are
producing, selling, and even buying. The following are the advantages of
inventory planning:
·
You can conduct stock rotation.
·
You know your stock level.
·
You can quickly identify items that are not
moving that you can remove from your inventory.
·
You can optimize and reduce the stock of items
that don’t move quickly.
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