PLEASANTON, Calif., Nov. 09, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Steelwedge announced today that Radisys® Corporation has gone live with its Supply Planning and Response Management solutions. Integrating demand planning, supply planning and response management on Steelwedge’s PlanStreaming cloud platform enables Radisys to more quickly process large volumes of data in “fast what-if” scenarios to determine the optimal response to customer demands based on service level, margin and revenue goals. Based in Hillsboro, Oregon, Radisys designs and manufactures high-performance networking and medical products that are manufactured in Asia and North America and shipped to customers worldwide.
Steelwedge solutions now perform planning and response management functions formerly handled by systems from SAP, ICON-SCM and E2open. A common platform gives Radisys the real-time readiness and response capabilities required for "zero-latency planning” -- faster forecast cycles, advanced scenario planning to leverage supply flexibility, and faster visibility into potential mismatches in supply and demand and the optimal actions to take.
“When a quick response to mismatches in supply and demand is required, being able to analyze many different scenarios for courses of action and the resulting tradeoffs in revenue, margin and customer service is a meaningful advantage for us,” said Radisys Planning and Fulfillment Manager Randolph Little. “Response Management analyzes multiple scenarios in minutes, versus the hours or days other systems may require.”
Radisys began using Steelwedge’s Demand Planning solution in 2011, and their operations team was instrumental in helping Steelwedge develop next-generation Supply Planning and Response Management solutions to meet everyday supply chain challenges. Response Management is integrated on a common platform with Demand Planning and Sales Planning to keep sales teams, planners and supply chain teams on the same page with respect to sensing and responding to demand and supply exceptions.
“Handling the unexpected is particularly challenging for businesses whose products have a high mix of components with long-lead times,” said Steelwedge Vice President of Product Management Dhruv Bansal. “Radisys’ supply planning and response management systems were not enabling them to respond quickly enough to changes in demand and supply, and their teams could not confidently commit to delivery dates on unexpected orders. Now they are equipped to consider many different scenarios with differing tradeoffs among revenue, margin and customer service levels when choosing the best response to a supply or demand exception,” he continued.
“Other systems require a long processing time for each scenario considered, particularly when lots of variables are involved, so there isn’t enough time to consider more than one or two scenarios,” Bansal added.
Response Management provides multi-tier planning visibility to components, semi-finished goods and finished goods, enabling Radisys to commit with confidence to a date it can deliver an order, while calculating supply, demand, and other order commitments. The system shows inventory available-to-promise (ATP), meaning items in the order are on-hand; and capable-to-promise (CTP), meaning the items in the order are not already on-hand, but will be in time to meet the order commit date. Response Management capabilities include:
“Fast What If™” Scenario Analysis
- The ability to model scenarios with different lead times and channel options, even when billions of planning points are involved
- Planning of responses ahead of time – because the system has the horsepower to make meaningful and multiple what-if scenario analysis practical, Radisys can continually stay ahead by planning the optimal responses to demand/ supply mismatches before they occur
- An open source big data platform powered by the kind of underlying technology that enables consumer platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Google to perform sophisticated analysis quickly
- “Bring Your Own AlgorithmTM” flexibility enables users to plug their own specialized algorithms into the platform to shape analysis and decision making
Segmenting & Prioritizing Demand & Exceptions
- Assign different service levels to different “tiers” of customers, to ensure the allocation of inventory and commit dates based on varying priorities
- Prioritize exception alerts to manage “first things first” – handle the most critical exceptions first to achieve the right service level, margin and revenue mix to meet company goals
- Continuously analyze scenarios throughout the quarter to take actions, such as accelerating order delivery or pre-assembling and staging components, to stay on track to meet quarterly targets
Analyzing of Alternate Source, Component & Capacity Decisions
- Automatically takes the best course of action in the face of supply disruptions
- If a supplier can’t meet a promised order, or if a component suddenly becomes compromised, supply chain teams can quickly analyze alternate suppliers and/or components to satisfy order commits while still meeting revenue, margin and customer service level commitments
Response Management and Demand Planning are part of Steelwedge’s PlanStreaming platform, which powers solutions for Sales Planning, Supply Chain Planning, Demand and Supply Sensing, Visibility, Control Tower and Exception Management, Opportunity to Cash, Procure to Pay and Sales & Operations Planning/Integrated Business Planning, PlanStreaming prepares organizations to be “ready to act” in constantly changing supply and market conditions.
About Steelwedge
Organizations use Steelwedge’s cloud planning platform and services to align product, sales, demand, supply, strategy, operations and financial decisions across roles, geographies, products, time horizons, channels, customers and suppliers to improve efficiency and outcomes. Steelwedge’s PlanStreaming cloud platform combines predictive, prescriptive and responsive analytics and technology to equip organizations to be ready to act in time with opportunity, especially in highly competitive markets where continuous planning is essential and efficiently responding to changing conditions is advantageous. To learn more about Steelwedge, visit www.steelwedge.com.