SAS^® Inventory Optimization Workbench Features

Data management

• Data from disparate sources of product distribution can be aggregated while eliminating inconsistencies and redundancy.
• All factors that affect demand can be considered, which creates more accurate forecasts.
• Data from can be pulled from ERP and legacy systems.
• Transform, standardize and cleanse your data.

Inventory optimization

• A buyers’ workspace with a suggested plan of orders for a given facility in a single, dual or multiechelon network.
• Replenishment plans for low-stock items.
• Cost by source for each order.
• Cost summaries for each optimized plan.
• Auto-leveling between facility inventories when the data suggests this would be cost-effective.
• Lock and promote order recommendations that includes an automated pathway when needed.
• Edit suggested orders, or create a manual order.
• Promotional and turn ordering workflows:
  • Base/turn orders allow for the normal volume and demand fluctuations that fall within standard lead times.
  • Promotional ordering allows for long lead-time planning, collaboration and execution.
• Order suggestions and optimization overrides:
  • The system automates the creation of trusted ordering requirements.
  • System provides a logical stepped process to go from the opening order, to promotion of the order, and then to order execution.
  • Allows for cancellation of an order and an immediate system update.
  • Ability to generate a manual order to override the optimization process.
• Promotional order sequencing and sorting:
  • Order processing can be configured to align with negotiation periods.
  • Align ordering with optimal upstream and downstream product flows to support promotional events.
  • Sort order by promotion ID, date, name, vendor, product and locations.
• Improved inventory performance and advanced product and location segmentation:
  • Easily viewable outputs provide insight into the optimization policy results.
  • Configurable product segmentation allows for extremely accurate segmentation and the ability to link to product attribute segments for hard-to-forecast products including attribute filtering in what-if scenarios.
  • Configurable facility segmentation allows customization of facility hierarchy.
  • Customized alert thresholds and the ability to assign specific service levels to regular (versus promotional) volumes.
  • Visual facility hierarchy view to easily understand product flows including the ability to see upstream inventory support to underlying locations.

What-if scenario development

• Provides accurate cost analysis of inventory proposals before implementation.
• Allows for multiple scenarios to be developed at once.
• Enable the user to review how business decisions affect both single-echelon and multiechelon networks. 

Demand-driven planning & optimization suite integration

• SAS^® Collaborative Planning Workbench – Automates consensus planning with a structured forecasting workflow.
  
• SAS^® Forecast Analyst Workbench – Uses SAS High-Performance Forecasting to generate more accurate, large-scale forecasts.
• SAS^® Forecasting for SAP APO – Advanced analytic forecasting integrated with SAP APO.
• SAS^® New Product Forecasting – Combines business judgment with statistics and our patent-pending structured judgment method, which suggests future demand of new products based on surrogate products.
• SAS^® for Demand Signal Analytics – Provides an integrated repository of demand information with tools for exploring and analyzing sales, products, stores, territories, promotions, inventory, price, performance and operations.