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Managing
your Supply Chain
Part 1
The world has become a smaller place, and supply chains have
become longer. Managing your supply chain effectively gives
you a competitive advantage (ask Walmart and Apple) and
there are many ways that ERP software can help a business
manage the entire breadth of its supply chain.
Find out how and the various modules available to help you
manage various aspects of your Supply Chain
Demand Supply
Contact Management
Triggers, Electronic Signatures
Dashboards
Business Analytics
Forecasting Sales Orders Goods in Transit Requisitions
Families and
Groupings
Point of Sale Supply Chain
Transfer
Purchase Orders
and Supplier
Contacts
Inventory
Optimization
Return
Merchandise
Authorization
MRP Landed Cost
Tracking
Load Planning Goods Received
Notes
Forecasting automatically generates forecasts
based on past sales history. It uses sophisticated
mathematical algorithms catering for trends and
seasonality, and can even automatically ignore
unusually large “one-off” spikes in demand.
It also lets you identify your most important
products using a built-in Pareto analysis (80/20
rule); you can use this to decide which forecasts
you want to (optionally) review and override. You
can also easily identify difficult to forecast items
by reviewing the accuracy of past forecasts.
…sibling module to Forecasting.
Some products are easier to
forecast in families (e.g. all types
of bottled apple juice vs.
individual bottle sizes).
Based on past history, the system calculates forecasts at family
level, which you can optionally override. These family level
forecasts are then automatically broken down to individual SKU
(Stock Keeping Unit) level.
…suggests optimal inventory levels to ensure
that you have the right inventory in the right
place at the right time. It does this by using
sophisticated calculations that consider many
variables such as forecasts, service levels you
set, etc. For example, you could specify that
you want a 98% service level on “A” items,
and 70% on “C” items, and the system will
calculate optimal inventory levels for each
SKU, location, and time period.
…lets you fulfil orders efficiently. The system
automatically picks up pricing by SKU and/or
customer and enforces profit margins. If you’re
out of stock you can automatically create a
purchase order, work order, or transfer from
another location. For orders with multiple
shipments, Dispatch Notes reduces paperwork
and steps by letting you ship the inventory in
stages but invoice just once. Load Planning
automatically figures out which trucks and routes
a sales order should be loaded on, including
allowance for mass and volume constraints.
…handles customer-facing, over the
counter transactions at your retail
stores. Its touch-screen and web-based
interface is fast and easy to use, and it
can even operate offline if the
connection to head office goes down.
…lets you transfer and track
shipments between your locations.
When used with MRP (Material
Requirements Planning) it can even
suggest Supply Chain Transfers to
replenish stock in one location from
another.
Hopefully customers don’t return too
many of your products, but if it
happens, the Return Merchandise
Authorization (RMA) module helps
you efficiently handle returns,
including automated creation of
credit notes, repair jobs, and
replacement sales orders. In many
companies the return process is an
afterthought, a costly black hole, but
the RMA system gives you visibility;
you can track, view and report on
the details of open returns and past
returns.
Lets you improve customer service by keeping track of notes and
activities against people and companies. It works not only with
customers but any organization such as prospects, suppliers,
competitors, etc. It integrates to Outlook® so you can send/receive
e-mails and schedule meetings. Even your employees not running
SYSPRO can access detailed Contact Management data right
inside Word and Excel® using a free plug-in for Microsoft® Office®.
Now that we’ve looked at better
ways to manage the “demand”
side of the supply chain, in Part
2 we’ll look at the “supply” side.
Canada
Tel: 604 451 8889
Toll Free: 1 888 259 6666
UK and Europe
Tel: +44 (0) 161 876 4498
A comprehensive guide, to the concepts,
techniques and technologies of SYSPRO
Supply Chain, inventory management and
optimization
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