Looking back at 2020, it would have been difficult for most organizations to have fully anticipated the extraordinary events of the year. More specifically, logistics planners in late 2019 may have planned for disruptions, but likely not on the scale of widespread shutdown of economic activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting chaos inflicted on supply chains.

In April 2020, Lisa Shalett, Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, described the coronavirus-induced shocks as unprecedented. She told The Wall Street Journal that the COVID-19 crisis would be a test of which companies actually had a “resilient and recurring stream” that they could maintain even under duress.

But how can planners adapt to fast-changing operational environments and better manage such disruptions to sustain their revenue in 2021 and beyond? It all starts with an agile, integrated planning process built on a full view of company supply, demand and finances. Many organizations still don’t have this level of insight, but which can be achieved through solutions like Oracle Integrated Business Planning and Execution (IBPX).

Failing to Plan: How Non-Integrated Planning Sets up Failures Later on

According to Supply Chain Digest, less than 10% of all companies have “highly” integrated supply chain planning environments, with more than half instead relying on “moderately” integrated systems instead. These setups can create multiple problems, such as:

• Fragmented processes: When team members don’t work from a shared, unified set of data, they can end up pursuing disparate goals and producing very different forecasts that then have to be re-aligned later on. Such remediation consumes valuable time.
• Long planning cycles: Without true integration, teams can spend the bulk of their days tracking down the information and resources they need for planning, only to then have to redo the entire drawn-out process when business requirements change, as they did rapidly in the wake of COVID-19.
• Human error: In the absence of automated systems, simulations and changes to the planning process are both very error-prone. Correcting any resulting mistakes on a tight timeline is not a value-added task. Plus, it’s possible that some errors will still slip through.
• Limited scalability: The overall combination of manual work and disconnected systems involved in traditional supply chain planning makes it hard to keep up with large numbers of products spread across multiple vendors. Execution becomes more difficult.

Overcoming these challenges requires bringing planning and execution under the same umbrella. To that end, Oracle IBPX harnesses the combined capabilities of applications like Enterprise Planning Management, Supply Chain Planning, Sales and Operations Planning and Sales and Operations Execution.

Planning, both for ideal scenarios and adverse ones, helps organizations to be ready for virtually anything that comes their way. Here’s how Oracle IBPX and Inspirage’s Enterprise Control Tower can help.

Planning to Fail: Adapting Better to Adversity with IBPX

IBPX enables tighter alignment of people, processes and technology across both supply chain operations and financial management. Teams gain much clearer visibility from one integrated platform, allowing for better performance in areas including but not limited to:

Scenario planning

It becomes easier to model possible changes — e.g., what happens if a 2021 event were to suddenly increase consumer demand — and then evaluate different potential response plans.

Replenishment planning

Reconcile evolving demand with a company’s supply chain capabilities for better replenishment of stores, warehouses and Periodic Automated Replenishment locations.

Backlog management

As supply and demand shift in response to supply chain disruptions, it’s important to update schedules accordingly, so that open orders are properly reprioritized and fulfillment alternatives fully utilized.

Aggregate planning

Anticipate customer demand and then plan out the strategic capacity necessary for managing it.

Financial risk monitoring

Use comprehensive visibility to keep tabs on possible risks and increase organizational accountability.

 

Get more from IBPX through Inspirage

As a recognized Oracle partner, Inspirage can guide your journey toward IBPX. Furthermore, you can supercharge your IBPX Oracle Cloud solution with Inspirage’s Control Tower to accelerate implementation speed, increase user acceptance and help your business establish an IBPX foundation. Our expert team will help you connect finance, supply chain management and product development on one platform.

To learn more, connect with us. You can also watch the full Inspirage IBPX webinar on-demand for more detail on how IBPX works.