Introduction

Demand Driven MRP (DDMRP) is a great trigger to buy/make/distribute in the short-term. But what occurs over the next 1 to 12 months? Supply chains need the visibility over this period of time as well. Can we still use DDMRP? In short, yes!

What is DDMRP used for?

DDMRP is the operational component of the Demand Driven Adaptive Enterprise (DDAE) to deliver inventory and customer service benefits. For further case studies and education, please read this article on Demand Driven MRP & The Demand Driven Adaptive Enterprise.

DDMRP is an unconstrained order release process based on inventory buffers within the Decoupled Leadtime (DLT). These buffers can be sized using historical demand and/or future demand. This will ensure the buffers are dynamically sized. However, DDMRP has no visibility of the capacity available to supply those buffers. Demand Driven S&OP (DDS&OP) is vital to allow us to carry out a supply and demand reconciliation to recommend buffer adjustments to reduce these risks.

The relevant range of Demand Driven S&OP is everything outside the DLT up to approx. 1-2 years. DDS&OP also reviews historical performance of the buffers and ensures the key inputs to buffer sizing (Average Daily Usage (ADU), Red zone, Green Zone) are optimal.

A SAP IBP solution

The Olivehorse DDS&OP solution is built within SAP IBP and therefore seamlessly integrates with SAP Demand Driven Replenishment (DDR). The flexibility of SAP IBP plus the Supply Optimiser allows us to consider capacity constraints, material lead-times across the End-to-End network and calculate buffer adjustments outside the DLT.

Read Article

Demand Driven MRP & The Demand Driven Adaptive Enterprise

The greatest barriers to supply chain delivering the desired service level at the lowest possible cost are lead-time and variability. Our lead-times are longer than customer expectations, meaning we must rely on forecasting and inventory to deliver service. The issue with forecasting is that it is never correct – meaning we never sell what we forecast, and the longer the lead-time the less reliable the forecast becomes. The combination of inaccurate forecasts and long lead-times with a conventional MRP planning solution (which relies on perfect demand, lead-time adherence and dependency between all nodes) results in a bimodal inventory distribution. The result is an excess of some items, and shortages of others, with the inventory position oscillating between feast and famine leading to poor service, despite high inventory and high expediting fees.

Read Article

When discussing Demand Driven MRP (DDMRP) one question often comes up:
How much benefit of DDMRP is due to daily planning?

This is driven by the understanding that reviewing your plan more frequently will enable you to make quick changes to demand. This is true. However, the difference between DDMRP and MRP remains that whilst MRP reacts to the changes of inaccurate forecasted demand, DDMRP reacts only to confirmed demand, not forecast. 

Read Article