Demand planning module

The demand planning module is used for short-term and midterm sales planning. It covers basic statistical forecasting methods, but is also capable of taking additional aspects into account. For example, these may be promotions in shortterm sales planning or the consideration of product lifecycles in midterm sales planning. 

The general SCM matrix can be adapted to better reflect the specihc characteristics of basic chemical industry. In the traditional SC planning matrix, the material requirement planning modules are concerned with determining order quantities of raw and intermediate materials necessary to realize a pre-dehned production plan. These tasks are particularly challenging if the variety of handled materials is large.In basic chemical industry, however, the variety of raw and intermediate chemicals is comparatively small while their demand is high and mostly determined by the plants technical specifications. 

TaylorMade mns the applications on Hewlett-Packard NT and Unix servers and Oracle databases on Unix. The first two modules installed were for handling demand planning and procurement collaboration with ten suppliers, mostly in Southeast Asia. The demand planner module lets the firm prepare collaborative forecasts based on inputs from internal data, retailers, suppliers, and third-party companies. The company uses this information to ensure that the parts necessary for the assembly of the golf clubs are made and delivered on time. Suppliers have been particularly pleased with the system as they can now view what is happening, particularly in terms of incoming orders, and plan accordingly. 

Short-term sales planning is sometimes supported by a demand fulfillment and available-to-promise (ATP) module. Its purpose is to match inventories and production orders with demands, if customers require reliable quotes with only short notice. 

The purpose of the sales and operations planning (SOP, section 6.1.1) module is to set sales forecasts and to translate them into operations plans via the master production schedule. SOP requires internal integration, at least between sales and operations, to achieve its purpose. Forecasting is not just a numbers game - it is a key business process that supports supply chain readiness for market demand. 

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