When discussing the planning cycle in Dynamics Supply Chain Management, it is important to distinguish between three major components.
1. Demand Planning
The first element is Demand Planning, also known as Sales Forecasting. The primary goal of Demand Planning is to forecast future sales, specifically the products and services that are sold or included in sales orders or quotations.
2. Supply Planning
The second part involves Supply Planning, commonly referred to as Material Requirements Planning (MRP). This focuses on managing the resources required for production and ensuring availability based on demand forecasts.
3. Supply Chain Execution
Lastly, Supply Chain Execution encompasses various modules such as warehousing management, transportation management, and production control, among others. These modules are crucial for the smooth operation and coordination of the supply chain processes.
Historically, there has been a lack of a comprehensive solution for Demand Planning, leading to potential confusion regarding terminology. It is essential to recognize that Demand Planning is distinct from Supply Planning tools like MRP, DDMRP, or Planning Optimization. Demand Planning specifically caters to sales planning and Sales Forecasting processes.
Moving forward, there is a call to establish clearer naming conventions for these areas to enhance understanding and differentiation between Demand Planning and Supply Planning.
Demand Planning in D365 Supply Chain Management
In Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Demand Planning is a standalone application. The initial step involves importing data from various sources such as Azure data lake, F&O instances, or standard formats like CSV or Excel files. Data can be sourced from multiple platforms, enabling a comprehensive view of historical demand, customer hierarchies, and future sales projections.
The Demand Planning process follows a structured five-step approach:
- Import Data
- Create Transformation
- Generate Forecast
- Review
- Export Data
The exported data can be shared with third-party tools like Azure Data Lake or imported back into F&O systems for further analysis and planning processes.
Subsequently, this data is utilized within the supply planning process to generate planned orders through MRP runs. These planned orders are then executed through production, purchases, or transfers within the system, ultimately resulting in the fulfillment of sales orders and the shipment of goods to customers. This data loop forms a recurring cycle, with each period requiring the completion of the five aforementioned steps for effective Demand Planning.
Collaborative Planning
One of the most crucial stages in the planning process is the review phase, where teams dedicate significant time. To facilitate collaboration, various capabilities have been integrated, including:
- Tracking changes through versioning of time series
- Commenting at both an overall and specific cell level
- Utilizing a chat client to engage with stakeholders who are not directly involved in the planning cycle, like purchasing managers.
Ease Product Lifecycle Handling
When addressing product lifecycle management, certain scenarios require strategic handling, such as planning sales for new items or introducing follow-up models. The “phase in and phase out” capability allows for the transfer of historical data from known items to new products. Moreover, this functionality extends to copying data across different items to cater to varying product attributes and source data.
Furthermore, the capability to phase in is not restricted to product-level transitions but can also be applied across different dimensions like new stores or warehouses. This flexibility ensures smooth expansion and planning initiatives, supporting efficient warehouse management practices and overall operational scalability.