What it Is

As a manufacturer with a complex, multi-site operation, knowing for certain that your entire supply chain is serving customers at the least possible cost can be a challenge. If you optimize all aspects of your supply chain—including manufacturing, transportation, inventory and purchasing—in a holistic manner you can ensure your customers' expectation are met at the least cost to your organization.

Advanced Planning will not only help you optimize your entire supply chain it will also model any unique characteristics of your business, so you can:

• Plan your production, procurement, and transportation plans across multiple sites at the same time.
• Balance product mix capability with profitability.
• Consider shelf-life constraints in build-ahead strategies.
• Choose the best product recipe or formula based on material availability, quality, and demand.
• Provide ATP and CTP answers to your customers' demand.
• Understand in real-time the impact of changes in your supply chain such as a down production line or increase in demand.

Advanced Planning is a configurable solution you can mold to meet your unique requirements and address the steady stream of changing variables. With Advanced Planning you get capabilities for:

• Optimization—Holistically analyze production capacities, transport routes and capacities, labor capacities and skills, and alternative sourcing options to maximize resource utilization, minimize total supply chain cost, and synchronize production and demand.
• Scenario modeling—Model and compare strategies and budgets for inventory management, internal sourcing, workforce deployment, and other factors to decide whether to make or buy product to meet demand.

The result: You produce an efficient, profitable supply chain that makes trade offs in production, transportation, material, and procurement to deliver the optimal plan for your business.