Streamline Your Supply Chain Operations with Our Expert Planning Services
Whether your industry is in retail, manufacturing, services or pharmaceuticals, forecasting customer demand is key to driving a demand-driven supply chain.
Whilst the importance of accurate demand planning & forecasting has increased, it has become increasingly challenging to get right, particularly now - post COVID, given significant demand volatility and drivers such as:
- Shorter product lifecycles
- Changing customer requirements
- Macro-economic conditions
- Inflationary pressures
- Global competition
Despite these changing conditions, many organisations demand planning capability is often ineffective, disintegrated, simplistic, highly manual and lacking ownership.
Here is where our team can help, with our forecasting and demand planning consulting services.
trace. has proven experience in Demand Planning consulting. We tailor forecasting processes, technology, data and performance measures to fit an organisations requirements and capability. For instance, for some organisations, we prioritise the importance of a bottom up statistical forecasting approach. However for others, such as fashion and apparel industries, we weight a top down merchandise planning approach to be more appropriate.
In engagements that involve demand planning & inventory optimisation - we target outcomes such as service level improvements, COGS & working capital efficiencies, and cost to serve benefits.
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)
With supply chain decisions reverberating across the entire business, the outcomes of quality decisions versus sub-optimal decisions have a direct impact upon service levels, cash flow and profitability. Effective Sales & Operations Planning can be the difference between a struggling business and one that has a competitive advantage.
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a process used by organisations to align their sales, marketing, and operations goals.
The objective of S&OP is to balance demand and supply, ensuring that an organisation can meet customer demand while maximising the use of its resources.
Planning technology is important to support the S&OP process because it provides the necessary tools and systems to gather, analyse, and share data, enabling organisations to make informed decisions. Planning technology also provides real-time visibility into the supply chain, allowing organisations to respond quickly to changes in demand, improve forecast accuracy, and avoid stockouts or overstocking.
The benefits of planning technology in supporting S&OP include:
- Improved data accuracy: Planning technology provides real-time data and analytics to inform demand forecasting, reducing the risk of stockouts or overstocking.
- Better collaboration: Planning technology enables stakeholders to work together more effectively, improving communication and decision-making.
- Increased efficiency: Planning technology automates many manual processes, reducing errors, and increasing efficiency.
- Better demand visibility: Planning technology provides a single source of truth, giving organisations real-time visibility into demand, enabling them to respond quickly to changes in demand.
- Improved decision-making: Planning technology provides a complete view of the supply chain, enabling organisations to make data-driven decisions, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction.
Sales & Operations Planning enhances the decision-making quality in a business by providing visibility and allowing for agility in portfolio, demand, supply and distribution management. It is a well-established proven framework; however, many large organisations currently are unable to effectively leverage its benefits.
trace. can support organisations through our team of demand planning consultants. They will work with your organisation in establishing the required foundations in planning capability - people, process, systems and data - to implement an effective S&OP framework.
Our approach to S&OP framework is practical, in that we:
- Review the planning capability (that is the People, Processes, Systems and Data) that support S&OP, in order to identify bottlenecks and pinch-points.
- Identify opportunities within the S&OP framework - i.e current S&OP activities & meetings, planning cycles, data inputs and outputs - comparing to industry best practice.
- Develop an action-oriented, timely S&OP process that can inform trade-off decision-making, KPIs and policy across the supply chain
MRO Supply Chains
Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) supply chains are often overlooked aspects of business management, with many companies focusing on production and sales instead. However, MRO supply chains are an important part of operations and supply chain management. Investing in MRO supply chain optimisation can lead to significant competitive advantages, such as reduced downtime, increased productivity, and improved customer satisfaction. In this article, we will explore the importance of MRO supply chain investments and discuss examples of organizations that have successfully harnessed this strategy to stay ahead of the competition.
Why Invest in MRO Supply Chains?
MRO supply chains are crucial to ensuring the smooth operation of any organisation. The efficiency and effectiveness of MRO processes can have a direct impact on a company's bottom line. By investing in MRO supply chain improvements, companies can achieve several benefits, including:
- Minimising downtime: Efficient MRO supply chains reduce machine downtime, leading to increased productivity and higher revenues.
- Enhancing inventory management: Optimising MRO inventory can prevent overstocking and understocking, reducing costs and minimising the risk of production disruptions.
- Improving customer satisfaction: Prompt and efficient MRO services can help maintain product quality and timely deliveries, leading to happier customers and increased loyalty.
Speak to our supply chain planning and optimisation consultants today to find out more about how we can enhance your organisation's processes in this area.
Want to work with us? Enquire today!
Our consultants can help your business optimize operations in several areas, including supply chain operations, forecasting and demand planning and consulting, warehousing and distribution, workforce scheduling, customer experience, and strong organisational designs backed by processes. We pride ourselves on being Australia’s benchmark boutique advisory firm specialising in creating resilient and sustainable supply & service chains. Contact us to begin working on your business's supply chain strategy today.