Duration 3 days – 21 hrs

 

Overview

This course provides participants with practical knowledge of the tools, techniques, and processes used to plan and manage supply chain operations effectively. It covers demand forecasting, sales and operations planning, inventory optimization, supply and capacity planning, material requirements planning, performance measurement, and risk management.

 

Participants will work through practical exercises and business scenarios to develop supply chain plans, evaluate planning trade-offs, and improve product availability while controlling inventory and operating costs.

 

Objectives

• Explain the role of planning in an end-to-end supply chain. 
• Map the major supply chain planning processes and their relationships. 
• Apply qualitative and quantitative demand-forecasting techniques. 
• Measure forecast accuracy and identify sources of forecast error. 
• Facilitate demand review and Sales and Operations Planning processes. 
• Develop supply, capacity, inventory, and replenishment plans. 
• Calculate safety stock, reorder points, and appropriate order quantities. 
• Apply Material Requirements Planning principles. 
• Identify and manage supply chain constraints, risks, and uncertainties. 
• Use scenario analysis to assess planning alternatives and trade-offs. 
• Select relevant supply chain planning tools and technologies. 
• Establish practical supply chain performance indicators. 
• Create an improvement plan for the participant’s organization.

 

Target Audience

• Supply chain planners and analysts 
• Demand and supply planners 
• Inventory and materials planners 
• Procurement and purchasing professionals 
• Production planners and schedulers 
• Logistics and warehouse professionals 
• Sales and Operations Planning team members 
• Manufacturing and operations personnel 
• Finance and commercial professionals involved in planning 
• Supply chain supervisors and managers 
• Professionals transitioning into supply chain planning roles

 

Prerequisites 

• Basic knowledge of supply chain, logistics, procurement, manufacturing, or business operations 
• Basic numeracy and spreadsheet skills 
• Familiarity with organizational sales, inventory, purchasing, or production data is helpful but not required 
• Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop with spreadsheet software for the practical exercises.

 

Course Outline 

 

Day 1: Supply Chain Planning and Demand Management

Module 1: Fundamentals of Supply Chain Planning

• Overview of the end-to-end supply chain 
• Strategic, tactical, and operational planning 
• Planning horizons and time fences 
• Push, pull, and hybrid supply chain models 
• Relationships among demand, supply, inventory, production, and distribution planning 
• Planning policies, assumptions, and decision rights 
• Common planning challenges and sources of uncertainty 

Module 2: Supply Chain Data and Planning Tools

• Essential master and transactional data 
• Bills of materials, routings, lead times, inventory records, and calendars 
• Data quality and planning accuracy 
• Spreadsheet-based planning tools 
• Enterprise Resource Planning systems 
• Advanced Planning and Scheduling systems 
• Supply chain planning platforms and control towers 
• Role of analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence in planning 
• Selecting tools based on organizational requirements and maturity 

Module 3: Demand Forecasting Techniques

• Demand patterns: trend, seasonality, cycles, and random variation 
• Independent and dependent demand 
• Qualitative forecasting methods 
• Moving-average forecasting 
• Weighted moving averages 
• Exponential smoothing 
• Trend and seasonal forecasting concepts 
• Causal and collaborative forecasting 
• Selecting an appropriate forecasting method 

Module 4: Forecast Performance and Improvement

• Forecast versus actual demand analysis 
• Mean Absolute Deviation 
• Mean Absolute Percentage Error 
• Forecast bias and tracking signals 
• Understanding forecast error 
• Forecast Value Added 
• Exception-based demand planning 
• Developing a consensus demand plan 

       Practical exercise: Prepare and evaluate a demand forecast using sample historical data.

 

Day 2: Integrated, Inventory, and Supply Planning

Module 5: Sales and Operations Planning

• Purpose and benefits of Sales and Operations Planning 
• Relationship between S&OP and Integrated Business Planning 
• S&OP planning cycle 
• Product, demand, supply, financial, and executive reviews 
• Roles and responsibilities of stakeholders 
• Reconciling demand, capacity, inventory, and financial objectives 
• Planning at product-family and item levels 
• S&OP meeting structure and decision documentation 
• Common implementation challenges 

Module 6: Inventory Planning and Optimization

• Functions and types of inventory 
• Cycle stock, safety stock, pipeline stock, anticipation stock, and obsolete stock 
• Inventory costs and service-level trade-offs 
• ABC and XYZ inventory classification 
• Economic Order Quantity 
• Reorder-point calculations 
• Safety-stock concepts and calculations 
• Min-max and periodic-review systems 
• Inventory turnover, days of supply, and stock cover 
• Slow-moving and obsolete inventory management 
• Multi-echelon inventory concepts 

Module 7: Supply and Capacity Planning

• Translating demand into supply requirements 
• Rough-cut capacity planning 
• Available capacity versus required capacity 
• Identifying constraints and bottlenecks 
• Level, chase, and hybrid supply strategies 
• Make, buy, subcontract, expedite, and defer decisions 
• Supplier capacity and lead-time management 
• Finite and infinite capacity planning 
• Balancing customer service, cost, capacity, and inventory 

       Practical exercise: Develop an inventory and capacity response to a changing demand scenario.

 

Day 3: Materials Planning, Risk, Performance, and Improvement

Module 8: Material Requirements Planning

• Master Production Schedule 
• Bill of Materials 
• Inventory status records 
• Gross and net requirements 
• Planned-order receipts and releases 
• Lot-sizing methods 
• Lead-time offsetting 
• MRP nervousness and planning time fences 
• Capacity implications of material plans 
• Distribution Requirements Planning overview 

Module 9: Scenario and Exception Planning

• Supply chain planning under uncertainty 
• What-if and sensitivity analysis 
• Best-case, expected-case, and worst-case scenarios 
• Demand upside and downside scenarios 
• Supplier disruption and capacity-shortage scenarios 
• Constraint-based prioritization 
• Product and customer allocation methods 
• Exception alerts and escalation rules 
• Contingency and recovery planning 

Module 10: Supply Chain Risk and Resilience

• Identifying demand, supply, process, logistics, and external risks 
• Risk probability and impact assessment 
• Supplier dependency and concentration risk 
• Lead-time variability and disruption exposure 
• Risk mitigation strategies 
• Alternative suppliers and sources 
• Strategic inventory and capacity buffers 
• Business continuity considerations 
• Building a resilient planning process 

Module 11: Planning Performance Measurement

• Service level and fill rate 
• On-time and in-full delivery 
• Forecast accuracy and bias 
• Inventory turnover and days of inventory 
• Stockout and backorder rates 
• Schedule adherence 
• Capacity utilization 
• Supplier delivery performance 
• Plan attainment 
• Cash-to-cash cycle time 
• Designing a supply chain planning dashboard 

Module 12: Supply Chain Planning Improvement Workshop

• Assessing current planning maturity 
• Identifying process, data, technology, and capability gaps 
• Establishing planning governance and accountability 
• Improving cross-functional collaboration 
• Prioritizing planning improvement initiatives 
• Developing short-, medium-, and long-term actions 
• Preparing an organizational supply chain planning action plan 

Capstone activity

• Build an integrated demand, inventory, supply, and risk-response plan for a business case.