Planning

Long term market planning is translated into short term actions.

ABS has an advanced planning module, which is fully integrated with operational modules. ABS allows perfect management of inventories, avoiding shortages and inventory write off's. The following planning is included:

Logistic Planning
Production Planning
Machine Planning
Process Planning
Inventory Planning
Picking Area Planning
Forecast
Orderplan

Logistic Planning

Logistic Planning Production

In ABS the Logistic Planning is a short term planning that is scheduling your processing activities. The Logistic Planning is a real-time consolidated overview that displays your sales information (forecast, orderplan, orders and shipments) against your inventory, production and purchase in order. The planning will indicate the best options you have to produce in time the required quantities of a variety. Shortage of a product can result in direct actions towards reservations or alternatives such as new processing activities. A surplus of a variety in the inventory can lead to additional or alternative sales activities. For the Logistic Planning all different units used with the different forms of the product are recalculated to one base unit of the planning (Thousand Seed Weight).

The sales orders to be processed in the planning are deducted from the inventory. These changes in the inventory, as well as the timing thereof, will be forwarded and taken into account in the Logistic Planning, the short term planning, but also in Production Planning (for Production Planning see hereafter). For sales orders to be delivered in the future, but today accepted, the Logistic Planning will forward this to the Production Planning.

Production Planning

Any production plan is the result of the discussion regarding a long term sales plan. And as the production is a long term process, the Production Planning is a long term planning tool with a scope of several years.

Production Calendar

In the production plan the total quantity to produce is defined in time and includes safety measurements chosen by your company. The total quantity per variety is then broken down into a planning per hemisphere and production area. In the production area the quantities can be planned per grower, that later will result in specific production contracts. The effects of crop failure or unexpected sales drop or raise can be minimized by including or excluding production areas. The production planning follows the latest updated information and offers you the opportunity to go for the best alternatives. The company strives to avoid overproduction but doesn’t need to miss sales opportunities.

Machine Planning

The optimization of your machine hours is keeping overview on the needed quantity in time and your estimated processing activities. In theory this is not too difficult. Your problems start when you have to make up for unexpected processing activities due to changes in the sales planning, i.c. changing and new orders or even machine breakdowns. At that moment your operator needs to reschedule your machine hours in best possible manner and right away.
The Machine Planning recalculates based on predefined settings the best way to overcome your backlog. The Machine Planning recalculates your best option at the moment you have to make a decision. And the Machine Planning gives you also an overview when you enter hypothetical processing activities. You can oversee the impact of accepting a processing activity in between the running activities. You instantly know if you can act flexible towards that special request from your best customer.
With hypothetical processing activities it is possible to indicate when and where bottlenecks will occur far before the actual situation even happens. Your investment strategy on new machines will be substantiated with a calculation before hand and not afterwards.

Process Planning

Process Day Planning

The process planning is a very powerful planning tool. In ABS it is possible to create a routing for a product based on the crop and/or production area. This routing describes which processes have to be executed to create a certain product including all quality activities that have to be done (quality assurance), like when and where to take a sample and which tests have to be executed. The routing is a proposal and can be easily modified based on the quality of the batch to start with, or on the results of the executed process. The use of routings will decrease the amount of operational administrative actions and increase the level of information towards the sales department regarding timing of availability of seed.

Inventory Planning

The inventory planning gives the user a perfect overview per crop of which products has a shortage/surplus in a certain period in weeks. The inventory planning shows per product/packaging several quantity figures like orderplan, orders, shipped orders, inventory, in process and quantities to receive. Based on that information an end figure of that period is calculated. With colors is indicated which product gives problems. The planning is also displayed in weeks.

Picking Area Planning

The picking area planning shows detailed information about the inventory status in the picking area, so the picking area planner can see, also within a certain period, if there is enough inventory available to ship the products in time.

Forecast

Forecast Analyses

The sales forecast is a long term planning covering several years ahead. The product as it sold in the market is planned as quantity per month including the expected price. The forecast is used for defining the production planning and to monitor the sales performance.

Orderplan

The order plan is a short term planning, it is a more detailed level of the forecast at week level specifying the packaging and treatment needed for the product. The order plan is the base for the planning of the operations, the distribution to warehouses and the making of reservations. When the seed is in reservation it is only available as inventory for the owner of the planning.