This article is relevant if you are working with NetSuite’s item demand planning tools and you need more flexibility and insight into existing orders and work orders.
Background
While leading a NetSuite manufacturing implementation, the manner that NetSuite offers up control over the review and update to item demand planning records was not intuitive to the planners.
The client wanted to see NetSuite’s existing sales orders that were loaded in the environment based on the planned ship date. Due to production cycle lead times, the most intuitive approach was to think about demand in monthly terms approximately six months out.
While NetSuite offers a way to generate item demand plan records based on a sales forecast, the resulting demand planning records offer no real insight into the source of the information. You have to jump to saved searches to try and explain NetSuite’s generated item demand records.
The client asked us to help them build better tools that more closely fit their requirements.
SuiteLet Based Item Demand Plan Forecasting Tool
As we reviewed the possible approaches to solve the challenge, the most natural approach is to first think about using CSV files to update records.
Indeed, NetSuite now offers a way to use CSV files to update item demand planning records. However, the structure is complex — and it supposes that we need information beforehand to prepare offline to eventually update the forecast. The client did not want to be in the data export/import game.
To solve the client’s challenge, we elected to use NetSuite SuiteLet technology to produce a simple yet intuitive application.
The application supports three major views:
- Demand Forecast: summarize (with drill through) sales orders based on planned shipped date.
- Current Demand: summarize (with drill through) what NetSuite already has in its native demand planning record.
- Planned Summaries: illustrate (with drill through) the existing work orders in play to give insight into the production schedule.
Demand Forecast
While NetSuite can generate an item demand plan based on sales forecast, the client wanted to see a summary based on expected shipments organized by month for the following six months. The planner sought a discretionary mechanism to bump up (or less frequently down) demand for each month.
Because the planner is curious, we offered a drill-through of the forecast information to help inform the analysis — the planner has a broader business understanding of the future and needs to shape demand according to his/her best interpretations.
When the planner is ready, he/she can then use the tool to selectively push this forecast into NetSuite’s native item demand planning records. Ultimately, NetSuite’s item demand planning records are used to help drive the Supply Plan which will help generate both work orders and purchase orders.
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Current Demand
Another tab in the tool is offered to see what NetSuite is currently holding in the native item demand planning records. This is primarily for convenience as it is a struggle to get a summary view of those records across items without reverting to a saved search. Thus, the summaries support drill through.
Click the related image to see full-size.
Planned Summaries
In this environment, the demand planner works with the production planners to help shape the supply plan. Thus, it was valuable to have a summary of existing production work orders in the tool to help see how the manufacturing department was planning to meet demand. This view too offers a drill through to the underlying work orders.
These insight summaries help inform conversations between the sales and production departments keeping all actors in step to meet customer product supply requirements.
Click the related image to see full-size.
Leverage SuiteLet Technologies to Shape NetSuite Item Demand
The above example is a good illustration of how the NetSuite platform can be extended to fit business requirements. The idea is that by careful listening and know-how, you really are never stuck. This is my firm’s core competency.
The good news is that all these technologies can be leveraged as building blocks to solve challenges. Our model is to give our clients all of our software algorithms without license charge so that we can accelerate delivery and enhance the value around our professional services.
If you found this article relevant, feel free to sign up for notifications to new articles as I post them. If you are working with NetSuite’s Demand Planning and you seek to help your organization with better tools, let’s have a conversation.
Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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