21 Apr, 2022

Demystifying NetSuite Demand Planning

Understanding and managing demand is crucial in the manufacturing and wholesale business. Everything from finances, production, supply chain management, and inventory is dependent on the product demand.  

Are you struggling with your demand forecasts even after spending a huge amount of money? Learn all about NetSuite demand planning in this blog and how it can seamlessly move your inventory to the right place at the right time. 

Let us first gain an understanding of what demand planning really is.

What is Demand planning? 

Demand planning is the process of estimating demand based on the supply of your business activities.  It helps reduce wastage of inventory and provides you with first-hand knowledge of the fast-moving and slow-moving products.  Demand prediction helps industries at large as the continuous flow of data from various parts of the business can be collected and analyzed in a single location. Data and trends collected from sales points, customer POS (Point of Sale), and seasonal data can help build the right demand estimate with the help of an efficient demand planning software.  

Importance of Demand planning 

Demand planning impacts several areas of your business. Without a proper tool, it can stagnate your working capital, disrupt your supply chain, and add up your inventory carrying costs. When your business is hit with high backorder volume, it is normal to rush your business in search of raw materials at the last minute, which results in high costs.  

Optimizing your inventory levels is important for any business that aims to reduce costs. Demand planning software can help you gain complete transparency in all your operational activities. Ultimately, demand planning results in a happy customer who can order and receive without disruptions.

Demand Planning with Oracle NetSuite 

Oracle NetSuite is the first ERP in the cloud offering a powerful platform. Its demand planning module backs organization with real-time insights and helps them analyze and predict future trends, fulfilling the demand planning in the most efficient way. Organizations of any size can implement the module and scale it as they grow.  

Superfast Highway to Growth 

NetSuite plays the leader with its years of experience in manufacturing and wholesale industries, through which it shaped its modules, breaking down all the operational silos. Equipped with NetSuite Demand Planning tool, businesses can go the extra mile with inventory prediction derived from inventory and sales data.  

NetSuite’s predictive mechanism ensures that you buy the right products at the right time and place, thus improving the bottom-line of the business drastically. In NetSuite, inventory management is handled in demand planning, thus demand for their products is calculated upon the basis of forecast data and seasonal trends. Once planned, NetSuite lets you set different levels of stock and streamline your task flow.

Top Benefits of NetSuite Demand Planning   

Seamless Inventory Management  

NetSuite offers multi-location inventory status to businesses in real-time. Managers and key stakeholders can seamlessly investigate the status of the inventory locations and the production capacity, helping them to plan and make better decisions. 

Effective Exceptions Management 

Unexpected events occur and NetSuite helps you be prepared for such events. NetSuite seamlessly handles these exceptions and ensures that the demand is fulfilled on time. Backed with AI (Artificial Intelligence), NetSuite can provide supply reallocation recommendations to managers on such occasions and allow the supply of that product from multiple locations and resources.

Making smart decisions with NetSuite 

Oracle NetSuite helps organizations with planning, enabling management to plan with all the key information needed. This helps businesses to make the right decisions at the right time, thus doubling the productivity and profitability of the overall company. 

Reducing costs   

Demand planning module in NetSuite plays a key role in optimizing order management and costs.  The ordering process becomes structured with NetSuite's order consolidation function, as orders of the same type can easily be grouped and shipped together, thereby reducing the expense total. NetSuite offers seamless workflows, auto and rule-based approvals to make sure the ordering process never gets stuck.

Final Words 

NetSuite demand planning covers several key areas and helps organizations automate a series of processes. It makes use of historical and sales data to calculate future demands. With a supply plan estimate, purchase and work orders may be created automatically. The cloud-based demand planning software helps you gain visibility into future sales and expected orders. This also helps enhance the customer experience as it is possible to let them know when and how their order will arrive.

Implement NetSuite for smoother and efficient demand planning. Jobin & Jismi is an Oracle NetSuite solution provider with extensive knowledge in NetSuite services. Connect with us today.