Advanced Planning and Forecasting
Feature and functional capabilities are highly customisable according to the customer operations. DISTRiX allows maximum flexibility beyond the scope of this document.
Why bother to plan and forecast? In a perfect world, we would know what our businesses were going to do. Then there is the real world. This is a world where the vagaries of business cause us to do imperfect things like use up valuable working capital buying more inventory than sales can support - just in case there is an unexpected rush or a delayed supplier. This is where judgment and experience meets science, and to give your buyers and merchandisers the edge there is DISTRiX Forecasting and Planning module.
DISTRiX takes the complexity out of inventory management and buying. Automated processes offer:
* Forecast review and amendment
* Recommended reorder points
* Recommended build / manufacture schedules
* Recommended orders
* Projected sales
* Min/max inventory levels
* Forecasted percentage growth
On line screen driven modeling coupled to back ground processes allows buyers and merchandisers to undertake 'what if' analyses. Furthermore system generated recommended orders or build for stock may be amended or cancelled.
Raw data from year to year can not always be used to provide accurate forecasts and so DISTRiX enables normalization techniques:
* Calendar normalisation e.g. movement of Easter
* The identification of historical promotions.
* The identification of seasonal behaviour ( e.g. BBQ's in summer )
* Normalisation of unusual events (e.g. gasoline shortage / strikes)
* Creation of consistent periods for example applying 4 seasons of 13 weeks.
* Categorisation of data into consistent groups across periods.
* Management of price elasticity.
Business planning rules will be applied on an individual company basis. Unlike other vendors, DISTRiX will optimize the business rules and algorithms according to each individual business's requirements including custom algorithms. Common inventory planning algorithms include:
* Exponential smoothing
* Regression techniques
* Weighted moving average
* Standard smoothed average
* Straight flat average
* Kanban
Outputs may be delivered by report to the screen or printer or extracted to a report writer (Crystal, Excel).
