Supply Planning with Avail
Avail's integrated suite of Supply Chain Management tools is the latest in a long line of proven Areté products that have been implemented in hundreds of manufacturing sites, plants, and distribution centers around the world.
A full Avail suite consists of powerful integrated modules that help plants schedule production, material batches, raw materials, orders and deployments to distribution centers and provide historical inventory reconciliation and variance reporting. These modules share common master data that describes all product-site combinations controlled by Avail and can be installed on several network architectures (application, file, or terminal server). The modules can be implemented simultaneously or rolled-out in separate, distinct phases.
Avail System Benefits Include:
Reduced product changeovers ● Reduced the number of production schedule changes ● Decreased inventory costs ● Substantially reduced Out-of-Stocks ● Improved product rotation and reduce dumpage ● Substantially decreased inventory shrinkage ● Maximized transport loading efficiency ● Centralized and organized enterprise-wide information
There are five functional roles that drive the implementation and ongoing operation of Avail. Each role has responsibilities described in the Standard Implementation Plan. Click here to view a pdf version of the Standard Avail Implementation Plan.
Avail Modules
Coordinate seamlessly with outside suppliers
Order Scheduling generates Finished Goods orders for items purchased from outside co-packers/suppliers subject to supplier lead time constraints and varying ordering cycles. Intelligent automatic order quantity/bill generation algorithms and built-in functionality to enable direct Web-based collaboration with suppliers ensure optimal coordination, and its flexible order scheduling efficiently connects suppliers with distribution centers and hubs.
Quickly react to shifts in demand to keep inventories within the target zone
Deployment Scheduling schedules deployment from hubs to warehouses in the most efficient and practical manner possible. It uses intelligent automatic deployment quantity and bill generation algorithms to produce detailed and comprehensive deployment rationale. Its simplified configuration and policy maintenance structure create streamlined deployment scheduling process flows.
Determine reliable projected inventory for effective scheduling
Inventory Policy displays and manages key inventory settings such as lead time, target service level and warehousing capacity. It cleanly captures the relationships between these settings to immediately show the effects of a change in any one. Various views of this information help managers make informed sourcing, service level and capacity utilization decisions central to establishing a cost-effective inventory policy.
Plan production runs with certainty
Production Scheduling creates production runs for the right time and in the optimal quantity. With it, production planners may identify capacity issues, manage a schedule and produce reports on scheduled production and batching activity. Its innovative Production Schedule Timeline schedules production using multiple views with which to evaluate and manipulate the schedule.
Oversee and control raw material planning
Materials Scheduling provides a standardized centerpiece for raw material delivery scheduling. As the weekly production schedule is finalized, it automatically extends the schedule into future months and then ‘explodes’ all scheduled runs through each product’s bill of materials to calculate expected future usage. All scheduled deliveries are then automatically re-evaluated against expected usage to determine the necessary action.
Replenishment Planning with TRP
Tactical Requirements Planning (TRP) identifies and adapts to subtle changes in supply chain costs to find cost-saving arrangements where none existed before. Responsively minimizing costs requires understanding the nuanced and real-time interaction of dozens of links in the supply chain, and TRP's seamless interconnection with the Avail suite of supply chain management tools enables it to do just that.
TRP assigns requirements of selected Warehouse-Products to production lines and/or external suppliers. TRP seeks to minimize overall costs by finding the best sourcing solution and constraining assignment to Production Lines according to line configured availability by week. The costs considered include Run Cost, Changeover Cost, Purchase Cost, Shipping Cost and Inventory Cost. In addition, Effective Future Date (EFD) sourcing allows Avail to have a different Warehouse-Product sourcing matrix for all future weeks. Days Supply calculations for Production and Deployment scheduling use this dynamic source calendar.
Create a tactical plan based on sales forecasts
At the system level
determine the plants that will source each warehouse/product combination (two different plants may ship a product to the same warehouse during the same period)
At the plant level
determine the lines which should be producing each product.
How are these objectives achieved?
Secondary Demand
when the plant that normally sources a Warehouse/Product combo does not have the capacity to meet that combo’s demand in a future week, TRP assigns that demand to another plant that can produce the product at the lowest cost
Pre-Build Demand
when the plant that normally sources a Warehouse/Product combo does not have the capacity to meet that combo’s demand in a future week but has capacity to pre-build for that week, TRP shifts that demand to an earlier week or weeks