Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning
Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning (ASCP) is a comprehensive, Cloud-based planning solution that initiates when and where supplies (for example, inventory, purchase orders, and work orders) should be deployed within an extensive supply chain. This is the function of supply planning.
Oracle ASCP provides the following key supply planning issues:
- How to plan my supply chain in the least amount of time possible?
- How to minimize the number of plans and iterations?
- How to plan my entire supply chain?
- How to involve my trading partners?
- How to access my plan from anywhere?
- How to keep improving my plans?
- How to plan all manufacturing methods?
The key capabilities of Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning are:
- Planning, Holistic Optimization, and Scheduling.
Oracle ASCP is able to plan all supply chain facilities instantaneously. Short-term scheduling and long-term aggregate planning are supported within a single plan. This single plan also supports multiple manufacturing methods, flow, project, including discrete and process manufacturing.
- Finite Capacity Planning and Scheduling. Oracle ASCP gives you feasible supply chain plans that consider both resource and material constraints.
- Users can easily configure to optimize Oracle ASCP to specific business criteria. No programming is necessary to access Oracle ASCP.
- Backward Compatibility.
Oracle ASCP’s component architecture allows it to be deployed with any version of Oracle transaction systems.
- Workflow-Driven Exception Messaging.
Oracle ASCP’s messages alert planners to critical issues across the extended supply chain. Workflows that drive these exceptions route data and feedback from trading partners as required, thus effectively involving them in the supply chain planning.
- Global Accessibility.
Oracle ASCP’s database-centric architecture stores plan data in a central server database. These data are accessible from anywhere, anytime via a simple browser. It is possible for different planners to simultaneously access the ASCP data from a single plan.
- Integrated Planning and Execution.
Oracle ASCP’s Advanced Planner Workbench user interface not only displays plan results, but it also allows planners to execute planning recommendations. Planners do not have to move to the transaction system to perform the plan execution.
- Simulation Capability. Oracle ASCP allows many types of changes to demand, supply, plan options, and resource profiles to simulate changing business conditions. You can generate a plan considering the changes that have been entered via the Planner’s Workbench. An unlimited number of scenarios can be simulated and compared using the online planning system, copy plans, and exceptions.
Distribution Planning
A business with multi-level supply chains has to fulfill demands from downstream distribution locations and customers from supply plans for their manufacturing and stocking locations. The rules that govern this distribution are different depending on whether the supply is constrained or unconstrained
The process includes generating a:
- Detailed short term (daily) plan:
A movement plan for each lane of the distribution network system
- Longer-term, higher-level material distribution plan
The constraints impacting the two plans are the same but the level of detail modeled is different.
- In both the short and long term, you must have global visibility to inventory positions in each location in your distribution network (external and internal), fulfill demand requirements rising at these locations, and be able to react to various specific consumption patterns
- In short, you have to maintain target and maximum inventory levels at each and every destination location and safety stock levels at each source location to react to demand uncertainties
In addition, you need fair share rules for supply-constrained items. These fair share rules specify how to cover part of the needs at each of the receiving locations when all of the needs cannot be fulfilled. This process can also be integrated with customers via agreements and customer-managed inventory.
Key benefits of using distribution planning can be:
- Improved customer service levels and reduced overall cost of inventory through proactive inventory rebalancing system
- Reduced cost shipping cost through load balancing
- Minimized inventory wastage and spoilage
- Improved service levels through fair share allocation
- Improved global visibility and enforcement of inventory and distribution policies
Distribution Planning and its features
Distribution planning focuses on the end items in distributed environments. As such, it does not suggest the production of more supply neither it considers manufacturing capacity and components. It mainly considers additional purchased supplies and supplier capacity models.
Distribution planning works with other Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning products that can be used upstream and downstream of it:
- Oracle Demand Planning drives independent demands into different distribution plans.
- Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning manufacturing plans drive supplies into distribution plans
- Oracle Inventory Optimization plans drive time-phased safety-stock information to distribution plans.
- Distribution plans drive Oracle Transportation Planning through the release
Manufacturing Plan Relationships:
The manufacturing and distribution plan types are:
Master Production Plans (MPP):
The MPP typically include your distribution facilities and not manufacturing facilities. Use the master production plan to summarize all the demands for production in your manufacturing plants. Typically, independent demand drives this plan and this plan drives the manufacturing and scheduling process.
Master Production Schedules (MPS):
They typically include your manufacturing facilities and not distribution facilities. Use the master production schedule and material requirements to plan the entire production schedule. Typically, the master production plan drives this plan and in turn, this plan drives the distribution planning and the manufacturing execution. For manufacturing planning, you can use either a two-level or a single-level planning approach.
Distribution Plans (DRP):
They typically include your distribution facilities and not the manufacturing facilities. A supply schedule is the master production plan, a master production schedule, or a material requirements plan.
