It’s no secret that there are currently some significant supply and demand challenges in industries across the board. While there is no quick fix, consider these 6 tips to help you use NetSuite to more effectively manage during these tough times:
1) Create an Item Demand Plan
An Item Demand Plan cab be manually created in excel and then loaded into NetSuite, or you can use NetSuite to generate your Item Demand Plan. Be mindful that NetSuite Demand Planning algorithms are limited, and if there isn’t enough data the plan may not be accurate, but in this instance, something is better than nothing.
2) View Demand and Supply as One Entity
Especially during challenging times, the Purchasing and Sales and Customer Service teams should be working closely together. It’s a given that Customer Service should provide a demand plan but purchasing should also be incorporating their supply and allocation planning into the mix as well for the most useful and accurate supply and demand account.
3) Revisit Item Reorder Points and Lead Times
Group the problem items and go back into the Item Setup to ensure reorder points, MOQs, and lead times are all still accurate.
4) Utilize the Supply Planning Workbench
Although it may seem complicated at first, the Supply Planning Workbench can be a useful tool. Build your item strategies and then let the Planning Workbench build your planned orders based on the projected demand and/or the actual demand.
5) Utilize the Order Items Page
Put this classic tool to use by selecting the correct date range on the Planned Order tab and process the purchase orders.
6) Allocate Supply
Although there are some limitations, the NetSuite Supply Allocation allows for purchase orders to be allocated to the existing demand in the system based on the allocation strategies chosen for your business.