You know that supply planning is essential for your business’s success and customer satisfaction. It’s directly related to and relies on your demand planning procedures. These interrelated processes ensure that you have the right amount of inventory when your customers want it.
Many companies are aware of the importance of supply planning, but they often use systems – such as Excel – to carry out the actual planning. Unfortunately, doing so often leads to human error and the need for more manual input. Supply planning software is designed to minimize these issues and more through the following benefits.
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Automation
Supply planning can be difficult when you’re doing it all manually. It can also lead to errors, which can be costly in your supply chain. Using software for this purpose, though, automates a great deal of the work. For example, it can run your calculations, point out key insights, process orders, complete invoices, track shipments, and much more. It also provides the necessary reports to implement changes and ensure that everything is moving smoothly. The more smoothly operations run and the fewer errors you make, the more money you save.
Meeting Customer Demands More Efficiently
When you know what to expect in terms of demand, you are more likely to meet it. Your supply planning software can help ensure that your products meet your customers in a timely fashion. From planning the necessary resources and creating the product to shipping and tracking it all the way to your customer’s doorstep – it helps every step of the way. This increases customer satisfaction, reduces the likelihood of canceled orders, and promotes customer retention – all of which save and make your company money.
Effective Inventory Management
No one needs extra inventory sitting on their shelves, taking up valuable space. Supply planning helps ensure you have the right amount of inventory to keep profits rolling in and minimizes your chances of spending unnecessary funds on storage.
Ensuring Resources Go to the Right Places
Every resource you use is valuable. From the raw materials and machinery to your employees – they are all essential to your success. And they all add to your operational costs. It’s imperative that each of your resources go to the right place at the right time.
After completing your demand planning, supply planning software can help determine which resources you need and where they should be utilized. This reduces your operational costs and maximizes your profits.
Time to Prepare
Companies lose a great deal of money searching for last-minute resources, paying expedited shipping costs, and paying unnecessary overtime due to a lack of proper planning. Supply planning software is a great way to minimize these costs, though, as it can help you determine what you need long before you need it.
It allows you to prepurchase supplies, spread the workload out over longer periods of time, ensure you have the necessary employees to fill the orders, and more. By seeing what you need in advance, you can ensure you have it on-hand and ready to go – no expensive last-minute items or overtime necessary.
While there are always uncontrollable things that take place, such as machine issues or employee absences, it’s important that companies focus on what they can control. Supply planning software is a great way to control these things as well as minimize the impact of those uncontrollable ones.