Successful demand planning within a manufacturing operation is a challenge many project managers struggle with. Demand planning calls for various attributes such as reliable consumer data to be able to forecast accurately.
Implementation of SAP demand planning is quick and simple, though, often not the be-all-end-all in terms of a final, best and total solution (see "Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Integration of SAP Demand Planning" section below). Defining the most important attributes of your production facility and establishing the key figures that affect your demand is a first step in the process of implementation.
Thoroughly analyzing all of these key factors will allow for enhancement of your demand planning process and provide a simple integration of demand planning methods.
SAP demand planning has various benefits that can be extremely beneficial to manufacturing operations that are wanting to improve demand planning. Along with simple and quick implementation, various benefits include the following:
These benefits and capabilities will adequately improve your manufacturing operation and optimize your demand and production through data accuracy, system integration, and overall operational efficiency.
Advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software is a robust extension of an ERP system such as SAP, and allows for a far more deeper insight into demand planning. Through presented up-to-the-minute data, an integrated ERP/APS system can accurately respond to forecasted demand. Together, the capabilities and benefits of an integrated solution capitalizes on the sum of parts and can greatly improve response to an ever-shifting demand.
See how PlanetTogether APS helps you visualize demand and capacity in one place. In this video, you’ll use the Inventory Plan to see how upcoming demand, current inventory, and available resource capacity line up over time—so floor managers can quickly spot when demand planning will overload production, drive overtime, or starve critical orders. It’s an ideal next step if you’re trying to connect demand planning, SAP/ERP data, and real-world capacity using advanced planning and scheduling instead of spreadsheets.
In this article, you’ve seen how demand planning and resource planning often pull in different directions. Demand planning pushes for higher volumes to hit revenue targets, while resource planning is constrained by the people, machines, and time you actually have. The result is all too familiar: scrambling on the shop floor, last-minute overtime, and profit surprises when the numbers finally land.
With the right production planning and APS software, you can connect demand forecasts (from SAP or other ERP systems) to a realistic model of your capacity, so you can meet demand without constantly burning overtime and firefighting.
Our eBook, “Producing for Profit,” shows what this transformation looks like inside a real manufacturing business. You’ll follow a growing manufacturer that’s struggling with late orders, rising overtime, and constant friction between sales and production—until they adopt a connected planning and scheduling system that aligns demand, capacity, and cost.
In this short eBook, you’ll see how they:
If you’re ready to stop choosing between satisfying demand and protecting profit, this eBook is your next step.