Business Operations

The Top 7 Supply Chain Planning Solutions

Discover the top best supply chain planning solutions. Explore features such as demand forecasting, inventory management, and transportation optimization.

The Top 7 Supply Chain Planning Solutions Include:
  • 1. IBM Supply Chain Solutions
  • 2. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
  • 3. NetSuite Supply Chain Management
  • 4. Logility Supply Planning And Optimization
  • 5. Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM)
  • 6. SAP Integrated Business Planning For Supply Chain
  • 7. Siemens Supply Chain Planning And Optimization

Supply chain planning and planning solutions support organizations in planning the full gamut of supply chain activities, including tracking the flow of goods and stock, managing finances, procurement of materials and the final delivery of products. As such they incorporate a range of features and capabilities, including planning, forecasting and stock management, order management and pricing planning, procurement, and order management and sourcing.

In today’s global, inter-connected, dynamic, and often unpredictable market environment, ensuring supply chains are resilient is critical. Supply chain planning tools provide organizations with the insights and capabilities required to monitor and manage operational processes, track finances, and implement improvements to improve overall supply chain efficiency.

Key capabilities of supply chain planning solutions include planning, forecasting, stock management, procurement, and sourcing, as well as assessment of supply chain risk, asset management, and maintenance. Solutions can encompass a broad range of these capabilities, often suited to different market verticals. Supply chain management solutions will also encompass order management and pricing, with a centralized dashboard to track order fulfilment, manage pricing and streamline the sales process.

There is a broad spectrum of supply chain solutions available on the market today, with each software tailored to cater to specific industries, scales, or challenges. To help organizations identify the right solution for their use cases, we have compiled a list of the top Supply Chain Planning Solutions. This guide breaks down their standout features, adaptability, integration capabilities, and overall value proposition, based on our internal market evaluation.

IBM Logo

IBM offers a comprehensive suite focused on enhancing Supply Chain Sustainability (SCS) and management. This platform includes a range of services including supply chain partner data exchange, procurement and inventory planning, and end-to-end supply chain visibility and orchestration. The system also promotes intelligent order fulfillment optimization.

Key features of the suite involve real-time intelligence recommendations to minimize supply chain disruptions, forecasting tools that enable comprehensive global supply chain visibility, and adaptable functionalities to respond to on-demand changes. Across product offerings, the IBM Supply Chain Intelligence Suite integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation to refine supply chain management and resilience.

IBM’s solutions include a holistic omni-channel order fulfillment platform emphasizing sustainability and automating complex product and service processes. Collectively, IBM’s Supply Chain solutions are designed to streamline operations, enhance visibility, and adapt to market disruptions, ensuring more robust and efficient supply chain processes.

IBM Logo
Microsoft Logo

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is part of the Dynamics 365 suite, a collection of intelligent business applications. This specific product focuses on optimizing the supply chain processes. The platform provides real-time visibility, agile planning, and advanced insights to tackle supply chain challenges.

The platform incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict demand and aid in stock decision-making, facilitating near-real-time stock monitoring. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management also offers material and resource planning tools, enhancing forecasting accuracy with AI predictions from Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. The software ensures stock positioning with buffers and uses demand-driven material requirements planning to generate supply orders automatically. Integration with Microsoft Teams enables smooth communication across various departments.

Dynamics 365 streamlines procurement processes, offers advanced analytics, and ensures suppliers adhere to negotiated pricing. Users can manage sales orders centrally, gain visibility into delays, and provide customers with real-time stock data. The system supports multiple pricing scenarios based on various attributes and efficiently manages order processes. Dynamics 365 enables comprehensive on equipment management, leveraging sensor data and IoT for proactive maintenance, scheduling, and asset management.

Microsoft Logo
Oracle Netsuite

NetSuite Supply Chain Management is a comprehensive solution designed to manage the entire flow of goods, from suppliers through manufacturing, to reaching the customer. This system facilitates smooth production processes by ensuring the timely availability of materials and the accurate scheduling of machinery and labor resources.

NetSuite’s procurement feature streamlines communication with suppliers to maintain accuracy throughout the purchasing process. Integration with demand planning, inventory management, and predictive analytics refines production strategies. Concurrently, work orders and routing guide the precise execution of supply plans, ensuring timely product delivery.

A key feature of this service is the ability to update production data, financial reports, inventory, and outstanding orders in real-time, aligning procurement, planning, and production systems. The solution enables real-time analytics for risk assessment, scenario planning for effective risk response, and tools to maintain consistent product quality. NetSuite was acquired by Oracle in 2016.

Oracle Netsuite
Logility

Logility’s Supply Planning and Optimization solution provides comprehensive inventory and supply chain management capabilities. This solution equips businesses with tools to predict future customer demands, product, and material requirements for efficient market demand satisfaction.

Key features of the platform include visibility into future business requirements, allowing businesses to anticipate both customer needs and supplier demands. For operational efficiency, it prioritizes exception-driven workflows, assisting planners in addressing instances where supply and demand might be misaligned. The platform enables collaboration between teams, facilitating improvements for both simple and complex distribution networks.

Logility’s platform offers inventory management and optimization tools to reduce obsolete stock, considering factors such as shelf-life. The software provides automation for continuous replenishment strategies, alongside various safety stock methods and order policies to manage inventory dynamics effectively.

Logility
Oracle Logo

Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a comprehensive platform for organizations to manage their supply chains. The solution enables businesses to adapt to shifting demand, supply, and market situations, offering an integrated approach to manage demand planning, order fulfillment, and production across the supply chain.

Oracle offers an integrated Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to facilitate global, mixed-mode manufacturing. It employs IoT and AI technologies to enhance scheduling, decision optimization, as well as quality and cost control. The solution provides a smart maintenance management service for heightened uptime and reduced maintenance expenses. It aids in streamlining various processes ranging from source-to-pay with intuitive user experiences and analytics to harmonizing product master data for quicker market reach and improved product quality.

A key feature of Oracle SCM is its ability to collate operational, customer, product, and machine data, presenting users with efficient issue detection, visibility, and insights across the supply network. This data-driven approach ensures confident decision-making, enabling businesses to effectively automate their supply chain executions.

Oracle Logo
SAP Logo

SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain (SAP IBP) is a cloud-based supply chain management solution. The solution enables Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), demand forecasting, response and supply coordination, demand-driven replenishment, and inventory planning. Admins can enable advanced analytics, leveraging artificial intelligence, and optimization algorithms, facilitating real-time visibility and more efficient decision-making across the supply chain.

Key features of SAP IBP include the integration of historical data with market trends for precise demand forecasting. The platform addresses capacity constraints, lead times, and inventory considerations to refine production and distribution strategies. The system also supports demand-driven replenishment and provides real-time supply chain visibility.

SAP IBP has been adopted by over 1,000 companies globally, from large corporations to medium-sized businesses across diverse sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and pharmaceuticals. Its versatility supports varied roles, from supply chain managers and demand planners to executives, catering to their specific operational needs.

SAP Logo
Siemens

Siemen’s Supply Chain Planning & Optimization suite is a comprehensive service for optimizing logistics and supply chain processes. Central to this suite is the Control Tower solution, which consolidates data from multiple IT systems into a singular configurable platform. This solution integrates logistics planning and optimization modules, allowing users to design custom process chains, simulate network architectures, and transportation routes.

The solution compromises a number of key modules. The Supply Chain Visibility module consolidates varied data into a unified logistics data model. The Network Planning and Optimization module enables users to design and analyze both new and existing network architectures. The Transportation Planning and Optimization module focuses on route efficiency, channel selection, and transportation capacity optimization. The Freight Rate Management module offers consolidated views of freight rates and contracts, while the Logistics Demand Planning uses materials requirements to determine transport capacities.

Siemens Supply Chain Planning & Optimization emphasizes data-driven insights, streamlining operations, and cost-saving measures, positioning businesses to navigate supply chain complexities.

Siemens
Top 7 Supply Chain Planning Solutions