Prophet 21 User Group Webinar: Inventory Planning Processes

Smart Software is pleased to introduce our new webinar, offered exclusively for Prophet 21 Users. In this webinar, Greg Hartunian, CEO at Smart Software, will lead a 45-minute webinar focusing on specific approaches to demand forecasting and inventory planning that will enable you to increase revenue capture, improve service levels, and reduce inventory holding costs. Minimizing excess stock, equipment downtime, and lost sales requires the right planning foundation. Most inventory planning teams rely upon traditional forecasting approaches, rule of thumb methods, and sales feedback. Many companies struggle to keep up, putting businesses at risk when the insulation of a growing top line thins. Our Webinar at EUG discusses these approaches, why they often fail, and how new probabilistic forecasting and optimization methods can make a big difference to your bottom line.

Please contact us to request access to the webinar. During the webinar, we will outline the challenges associated with traditional inventory planning processes and show how Smart Software can help. You’ll see a live demo of the Epicor Smart IP&O platform including the bi-directional P21 integration.

Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization is an integrated set of native web applications that provides a single, easy-to-use, scalable, environment with field-proven inventory and forecast modeling that optimizes inventory stocking policy and improves forecast accuracy. We hope you will be able to join us!

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please contact Smart Software,Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

Why pick arbitrary Service Level Targets?

The Smart Forecaster

Pursuing best practices in demand planning,

forecasting and inventory optimization

Why pick arbitrary Service Level Targets? Learn how to select automatically the optimal Targets @scale minimizing total costs for your business.

There are unavoidable tradeoffs between inventory cost and item availability. The Smart Inventory Optimization (SIO) app calculates all the key metrics to expose those tradeoffs. You can try “what-if” experiments such as “What happens to shortage cost if we raise the reorder point from 5 to 10?”. Better yet, you can let SIO find the optimal operating policy, e.g., the lowest cost combination of reorder point and order quantity that guarantees a 95% service level.

You Need to Team up with the Algorithms

This article is about the real power that comes from the collaboration between you and our software that happens at your fingertips. We often write about the software itself and what goes on “under the hood”. This time, the subject is how you should best team up with the software.

Using Key Performance Predictions to Plan Stocking Policies

I can’t imagine being an inventory planner in spare parts, distribution, or manufacturing and having to create safety stock levels, reorder points, and order suggestions without using key performance predictions of service levels, fill rates, and inventory costs.

Top Differences Between Inventory Planning for Finished Goods and for MRO and Spare Parts

In today’s competitive business landscape, companies are constantly seeking ways to improve their operational efficiency and drive increased revenue. Optimizing service parts management is an often-overlooked aspect that can have a significant financial impact. Companies can improve overall efficiency and generate significant financial returns by effectively managing spare parts inventory. This article will explore the economic implications of optimized service parts management and how investing in Inventory Optimization and Demand Planning Software can provide a competitive advantage.

Inventory Optimization for Manufacturers, Distributors, and MRO

Managing Spare Parts Inventory: Best Practices
In this blog, we’ll explore several effective strategies for managing spare parts inventory, emphasizing the importance of optimizing stock levels, maintaining service levels, and using smart tools to aid in decision-making. Managing spare parts inventory is a critical component for businesses that depend on equipment uptime and service reliability. Unlike regular inventory items, spare parts often have unpredictable demand patterns, making them more challenging to manage effectively. An efficient spare parts inventory management system helps prevent stockouts that can lead to operational downtime and costly delays while also avoiding overstocking that unnecessarily ties up capital and increases holding costs. […]
Innovating the OEM Aftermarket with AI-Driven Inventory Optimization
The aftermarket sector provides OEMs with a decisive advantage by offering a steady revenue stream and fostering customer loyalty through the reliable and timely delivery of service parts. However, managing inventory and forecasting demand in the aftermarket is fraught with challenges, including unpredictable demand patterns, vast product ranges, and the necessity for quick turnarounds. Traditional methods often fall short due to the complexity and variability of demand in the aftermarket. The latest technologies can analyze large datasets to predict future demand more accurately and optimize inventory levels, leading to better service and lower costs. […]
Future-Proofing Utilities: Advanced Analytics for Supply Chain Optimization
Utilities in the electrical, natural gas, urban water, and telecommunications fields are all asset-intensive and reliant on physical infrastructure that must be properly maintained, updated, and upgraded over time. Maximizing asset uptime and the reliability of physical infrastructure demands effective inventory management, spare parts forecasting, and supplier management. A utility that executes these processes effectively will outperform its peers, provide better returns for its investors and higher service levels for its customers, while reducing its environmental impact. […]
Centering Act: Spare Parts Timing, Pricing, and Reliability
In this article, we'll walk you through the process of crafting a spare parts inventory plan that prioritizes availability metrics such as service levels and fill rates while ensuring cost efficiency. We'll focus on an approach to inventory planning called Service Level-Driven Inventory Optimization. Next, we'll discuss how to determine what parts you should include in your inventory and those that might not be necessary. Lastly, we'll explore ways to enhance your service-level-driven inventory plan consistently. […]

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Smart Software VP of Research to Present at Business Analytics Conference, INFORMS 2021

Dr. Tom Willemain to lead INFORMS session on Generation of Probabilistic Time-Series Scenarios Belmont, Mass., March 2021 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that Tom Willemain, Vice President for Research, will present at the 2021 Virtual INFORMS Business Analytics Conference from April 12 – 14. Dr. Willemain will present a session on Probabilistic Time-Series Scenarios, and how such scenarios are used, evaluated, and automatically generated using the statistical bootstrap. Frequently, OR models supporting business decisions are feed on massive numbers of probabilistic scenarios depicting future operating conditions. For example, with business operating at ever-lower levels of aggregation and ever-higher frequencies, demand planning and inventory optimization now use models fueled by scenarios representing the randomness of product demand at a daily scale. Dr. Willemain will discuss how even trivial decision tasks such as operator education benefit from large numbers of realistic training scenarios. As the leading Business Analytics Conference, INFORMS provides the opportunity to interact with the world’s leading forecasting researchers and practitioners. The attendance is large enough so that the best in the field are attracted, yet small enough that you can meet and discuss one-on-one. The conference features content from leading analytics professionals, who share and showcase top analytics applications that save lives, save money, and solve problems. Furthermore, to cutting-edge analytics content, the virtual analytics conference recognizes and prioritizes the need for quality “face-to-face” interactions, networking, and collaboration in a virtual setting. About Dr. Thomas Willemain Dr. Thomas Reed Willemain served as an Expert Statistical Consultant to the National Security Agency (NSA) at Ft. Meade, MD, and as a member of the Adjunct Research Staff at an affiliated think-tank, the Institute for Defense Analyses Center for Computing Sciences (IDA/CCS). He is Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, having previously held faculty positions at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also co-founder and Senior Vice President/Research at Smart Software, Inc. He is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, the Military Operations Research Society, the American Statistical Association, and several other professional organizations. Willemain received the BSE degree (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Princeton University and the MS and Ph.D. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His other books include: Statistical Methods for Planners, Emergency Medical Systems Analysis (with R. C. Larson), and 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals on statistics, operations research, health care, and other topics. For more information, email: TomW@SmartCorp.com or visit www.TomWillemain.com. About Smart Software, Inc. Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions. Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Disney, Siemens, Metro Transit, APS, and The American Red Cross. Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items. It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels. Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com. SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O have registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc. All other trademarks are their respective owners’ property. For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478. Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

Smart Software Joins as Sponsor of the International Symposium on Forecasting (ISF)

The International Institute of Forecasters and Smart Software announced a new association as part of Smart Software’s sponsorship of the International Symposium on Forecasting (ISF)

Belmont, Mass., March 2021 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, announced a new association with the International Institute of Forecasters. This sponsorship will enable Smart Software to approach leading experts in the forecasting field, including many Nobel laureates.

The International Symposium on Forecasting, presented by the International Institute of Forecasters (IIF), is the premier international event for professional forecasters. Since 1981, this event has been recognized for the important forecasting research presented there, and for having hosted highly respected experts in the field of forecasting. Smart Software will support the IIF’s initiatives to bring together industry know-how and experience with evidence-based research innovations.

The IIF has held this symposium every year for the past four decades in New York, Dublin, Prague, Hong Kong, Sydney, and virtually in 2021. The International Symposium on Forecasting (ISF) is the premier forecasting conference, attracting the world’s leading forecasting researchers, practitioners, and students. Through keynote speaker presentations, academic sessions, workshops, and social programs, the ISF provides many excellent networking and learning opportunities.

About Smart Software, Inc.

Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions. Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Disney, Siemens, Metro Transit, APS, and The American Red Cross. Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items. It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels. Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O have registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc. All other trademarks are their respective owners’ property.

For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

Inventory Planning Processes: Challenges and Opportunities

Smart Software is pleased to introduce our new series of educational webinars, offered exclusively for Epicor Users. In this webinar, Greg Hartunian, CEO at Smart Software, will lead a 45-minute webinar focusing on specific approaches to demand forecasting and inventory planning that will enable you to increase revenue capture, improve service levels, and reduce inventory holding costs. Minimizing excess stock, equipment downtime, and lost sales requires the right planning foundation. Most inventory planning teams rely upon traditional forecasting approaches, rule of thumb methods, and sales feedback. Many companies struggle to keep up, putting businesses at risk when the insulation of a growing top line thins. Our Webinar at EUG discusses these approaches, why they often fail, and how new probabilistic forecasting and optimization methods can make a big difference to your bottom line.

Please join our webinar at Epicor Users Group, featuring Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, who will identify the main problems of inventory planning processes and show in a live Demo how to solve them.

On demand webinar

Smart Inventory Planning and Optimization is an integrated set of native web applications that provides a single, easy to use, scalable, environment with field-proven inventory and forecast modeling that optimizes inventory stocking policy and improves forecast accuracy. Please register to attend the webinar. If you are interested but not can not attend, please register anyway – we will record our session and will send you a link to the replay.

We hope you will be able to join us!