Demand Manager (DM)

Forecasting and Demand Planning

Minimize Inventory Investment, Maximize Customer Service

Figuring out the right stock levels can be quite a task. You need the right product, in the right location, at the right time—without carrying too much inventory buffer. RockySoft’s Demand Manager (DM) software for Distribution delivers the tools you need to make better stocking decisions. This visually based, graphical, and easy-to-use application integrates demand forecasting, inventory planning, and helps you effectively manage on-hand inventory levels.

Better Fill, Better Customer Service

Carrying extra inventory, especially for extended periods of time, can quickly eat away at margins. RockySoft’s Demand Manager synchronizes stock levels with forecasted demand. With DM, you’re armed with key forecasting tools to help you anticipate future customer demand. Exception-based forecasting, with the help of Exception Signals, lets you prioritize and keep a close eye on key products. At the same time, forecast deviation tools provide the visibility to see which SKUs are at risk—even across multiple distribution centers. You know what to carry and when to carry it, improving fill rates and customer service levels.

Adapt to Change on the Fly

Do some of your customers think in ‘weeks’ and others in ‘months’? Demand Manager allows users to dynamically switch between monthly and weekly forecasting, and provides the means to evaluate which method is most beneficial to the organization.

RockySoft understands that not all inventory is created equal. Consequently, multiple safety stock methodologies have been put in place. Service parts that sell intermittently, items that tend to sell in lumps, and regular movers are all treated differently to get just the right amount of inventory at the right place, at the right time.

Benefits

• Customer Responsiveness – increased fill rates (clients report 10-25% increase)
• Inventory Reduction – automated management of safety stock and reorder points leads to overall reductions of 15-35%
• Planner Productivity – ability to plan more parts, in more warehouses, with greater accuracy and less effort

Advantages of Demand Manager

RockySoft’s Demand Manager combines multiple forecasting and planning methods to create best-fit forecasts and safety stock quantities:

Forecast

• Improve your forecast accuracy using a proprietary statistical forecasting algorithm developed over 25 years to meet the unique requirements of product level forecasting across industries or use one of our many ‘textbook’ algorithms
• Fit the forecast level to your business requirements—product, product/customer, product/region/customer, etc.
• Utilize our lower level component forecast bypassing the need to purchase a full Materials Resource Planning (MRP) module
• Improve your forecast accuracy by linking similar part sales history as revisions are made to the product
• Manually create forecasts with your unique insight or let RockySoft automatically do the work for you
• Forecast and track multiple size/color combinations with our matrix forecasting functionality
• Provides an unlimited number of demand aggregations for high level visibility
• See the big picture when creating your forecast: RockySoft supports the display and import of multiple forecast series—statistical, operational, sales, financial, Point-of-Sale (POS), etc.
• Flexible forecasting to meet your specific needs—use monthly, weekly, or dynamically switch back and forth with tools to justify the choice
• Configure the forecast level to your business—item-centric, customer-centric, or a blended hybrid model
• Take seasonality into account with auto-detection or use your unique insight to enter an index

Safety Stock

• Carry less inventory by utilizing our dynamic safety stock calculations (carry more in season than you do in the off season)
• Carry only what is necessary--create a unique forecast for each SKU at each location
• Take the worry out of intermittent demand parts—RockySoft will auto-detect and deploy the appropriate safety stocking strategy
• Take the guess work out of establishing safety stock quantities—DM provides an inventory exchange curve simulation allowing you to put units/dollars to the inventory/service level tradeoff.

Flexibility

• Seamlessly integrated with Demand Collaboration Portal (customer sales forecasting portal) for automatic forecast consolidation
• Always be in the know—determine how sales for a region, DC, product family, etc. are doing with flexible, dynamic aggregations
• Scalable—manages forecasts for thousands of SKU/location combinations—we’ll grow with you
• Improve your forecast accuracy and stocking levels by incorporating promotional planning or special ‘events’ into the forecast (i.e. promotions, etc.)
• Sneak preview—incorporate prospective parts into the mix and create a forecast for them before they are officially in your ERP system
• Help prevent material shortages and inventory build-up with visibility into forecast error and forecast stability measures
• Adjust as necessary—top down or middle out forecast adjustment
• Match the inventory levels to your strategic customer service level objectives while minimizing cost
• Manage uncertainty in your demand stream with strategic inventory levels statistically calculated to assure product availability based on historical demand variability
• Size your inventory to mitigate stock out risk associated with unpredictable demand events
• Provides a forecast change audit report so you know who changed the forecast, when, and by how much
• Reduce overhead by being responsive to changes in demand patterns without carrying excess inventory
• Eliminates the need for complicated spreadsheet management of the S&OP process—automatically integrated with the RockySoft Sales and Operations Planning module.

Product Literature

Demand Manager (PDF)