Hi Experts
Does anybody have any experience in Demand Planning using downstream consumption data (or sell through - what my customer sells to his customer/ consumer)? Please provide your inputs.
The objective is to improve forecast accuracy from our Distribution Center using downstream customer Point-Of-Sale (sell through) and customer on-hand/ on-order inventory information to generate an Order Forecast (likely order quantities on our Distribution Centers).
Business Requirement Details –
1. Use downstream consumer history data and forecast at customer location (Customer Warehouse/ Store) level.
2. In some cases customer also provides their forecast (for sales out of for their location).
3. Based on #1 and #2 (reconciled) and based on on-hand/ on-order information and expected ordering policies of customer (Days’ Supply, for example), we want to calculate an expected ‘Order Forecast’ (similar to a basic DRP/ SNP calculation).
4. This Order Forecast (on our Distribution Center) will be used as an input to the regular Demand Planning process (in addition to forecasts based on shipments out of the DC location and other business intelligence).
5. Note that this is not a typical VMI scenario – there is no requirement to generate SO/ PO. The purpose is only to improve forecast accuracy by using downstream data and predict likely customer orders.
Questions we have -
1. We think SNC (Customer collaboration/ Responsive Replenishment) can be used for this scenario. Have you seen something similar (especially outside of a VMI environment)?
2. What data volumes (product@locations) can SNC handle based on your experience?
3. Can SNC and APO be run the same SCM box or do we need a separate SCM box for SNC. We already have GATP and SNP live on APO and are implementing DP.
4. Any Pros/ Cons of using SNC for this purpose. Any alternative solutions? (We are also considering using traditional APO VMI functionality (using DP/ SNP), but are concerned about potential performance impact due to data volumes (up to 10 million Product Location combinations).
Appreciate all your help!
Thanks Rishi