Agile Demand Planning

Softeon's Agile Demand Planning System (ADPS) is a unique and powerful solution that integrates many components traditionally housed in separate supply chain software modules to "connect the dots" in demand planning (sales and revenue targets), replenishment, and inventory management. It provides a framework for effective planning collaboration, enabling organizations to converge towards a "one-number" forecast.

ADPS builds on Softeon's Forecast Management System to create sales forecasts at any level of the supply chain that then drive inventory, replenishment and purchasing execution. The system uses "demand sensing" capabilities to react to near-term customer demand information (POS data, store or distributor inventory levels, etc.) to intelligently update the forecast based on these demand signals, driving changes in inventory and replenishment plans accordingly.

The forecasting component of ADPS has special capabilities regarding the forecasting of new product introductions and hard to forecast products, as well as management of promotions and events. For example, the system can observe the first few days of sales for certain types of new products and re-create the forecast based on this near real-time demand data. The impacts of events and promotions are elegantly handled, both in future forecasting as well as being able to easily understand the impact of past promotions or events (such as a drop in selling price) on historical demand or sales.

ADPS can also use advanced probability modeling to drive inventory and replenishment plans. Target service levels are combined with expected demand volatility, supplier and transportation lead times and other factors to create plans that will meet service levels at the lowest total supply chain costs or safety stock levels.

The integrated nature of the application means that as changes are made in one area of the supply chain, the impact is instantly modeled in all of the other areas that are impacted. For example, if the near term forecast changes, the recommended procurement quantities for upcoming buys may also change. The system can provide visibility and optimization in VMI channels as well as retail channels, owing to the flexibility within the system to model/analyze and synthesize at any level of the hierarchy (geographic or otherwise).

The Agile Demand Planner does all this and much more while being delivered on-demand in a portal style of delivery that makes accessing its powerful capabilities - including personalization and localization - easy from any computer with web access. This is especially important, as companies using ADPS typically will have users spread across such spaces as demand planning, supply and replenishment planning, inventory management, procurement, and manufacturing.

There is no other product on the market with the breadth of capabilities contained in Softeon's Agile Demand Planning System.