Unfulfilled orders on time, overflowing warehouses, declining service quality, dissatisfied customers. Can such situations be prevented? How to effectively plan production, procurement, and distribution of goods? Is it possible to predict and react quickly enough to emerging changes in market demand?
Slowly, Polish enterprises – especially the largest ones, the best managed, and often with foreign capital participation – are becoming aware that the integration and optimization of internal processes is no longer enough, and that the area where one can still seek a relatively stable competitive advantage is the logistics chain, which extends beyond the boundaries of a single company and integrates suppliers, manufacturers, and sellers into a value network (Value Net) operating almost in real-time. As a result, an increasing number of companies, mainly manufacturing ones, are making efforts to optimize their logistics chain. SCM/SCO (Supply Chain Management / Supply Chain Optimization) projects are becoming common.
The logistics planning process is carried out “against the current” of the actual flow of goods and products in the chain, and its first and most important element is demand planning. Only based on this information are distribution channels and methods, production resources, and the raw materials and components necessary for production planned.
Demand planning is currently one of the “hottest” topics in enterprise management. This trend has been noticed by, among others, suppliers of large ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, such as SAP or J. D. Edwards. ERP systems have long supported Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRPII) strategies. Both of these systems have recently been strongly “logistified,” with particular emphasis on Just-in-Time strategies and supply chain management. SAP in particular has strongly “tuned up” its flagship product by adding the mySAP SCM Supply Chain Planning module set to the existing set, with its main component, SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO together with SAP R/3 form the backbone of the mySAP SCM package).
Leading CRM systems from solution providers such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, E.piphany, and Oracle also contain functionality enabling sales planning and analysis. Business intelligence systems from manufacturers such as SAS, Cognos, or Business Objects, enriched with specialized forecasting modules, are also available.
However, each of these systems supports the planning process from a different perspective.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2004.