Smart Software President and CEO to Present at Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2019
Smart Software to lead Microsoft Dynamics NAV Summit Session on Inventory Optimization and Intermittent Demand
Belmont, Mass., October, 2019 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, inventory planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that CEO Greg Hartunian, will present at the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Summit from October 15-18 in Kissimmee, FL.
Greg Hartunian and Bruce Kennedy, Senior Consultant at ArcherPoint will present “Inventory Optimization and Intermittent Demand – Why Forecasting Isn’t Enough.” The session details how to plan optimal inventory levels for thousands of items when demand is intermittent. Seemingly random, sporadic demand is the worst case scenario for accurately forecasting demand and inventory requirements. Typical planning approaches such as reliance on sales forecasts and rules of thumb methods, why they often fail, and how probabilistic forecasting methods can make a big difference to the bottom line will be discussed. They will demonstrate practical examples, working through a service level-driven methodology to manage risk and find the optimal balance between inventory investment and availability, and then send corresponding replenishment drivers to Business Central 365/NAV to make it so.
The presentation is scheduled for Oct. 16, 1-2 PM. Smart Software will be also exhibiting at the conference showcasing Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization and bi-directional integrations to Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and Microsoft Dynamics AX.
About Smart Software, Inc.
Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner and full-service provider for Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365, a leader in providing 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 Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney, FedEx, MARS, and The Home Depot. 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 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); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com
Smart Software to Present at NESCON 2019
Smart Software to lead NESCON keynote address on Planning for the “Un-Plannable”.
Belmont, Mass., July 8, 2019 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that it will present at the NESCON 2019, New England Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition Keynote in Malborough, MA. The presentation is scheduled for Oct. 7, 12:15-1:30 PM.
Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, under the tittle “Planning for the Un-Plannable”, will present how to plan optimal inventory levels and purchase quantities for thousands of items, when demand is intermittent, constantly changing, or affected by unexpected events. Random, sporadic demand is the worst case scenario for planning and procurement, and leads to excess inventory levels, and costly stock outs. Greg will discuss traditional inventory planning and forecasting approaches, present practical examples of how they can fail, and share how probabilistic modeling methods can make a big difference to your bottom line. The Keynote is a good opportunity to learn how to reduce stock outs and inventory costs, by leveraging data driven decisions that identify the financial trade-offs associated with changes in demand, lead times, service level targets, and costs.
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 Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney, FedEx, MARS, and The Home Depot. 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 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); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com
Webinar: 10 Questions That Reveal Your Company’s True Inventory Policy
Do you know how your organization sets its inventory planning policies and the degree to which you actually apply them? And that they’re doing the job? Demand planning, forecasting, and inventory planning need to be well-defined processes that are understood and accepted by everybody involved. There should be zero mystery.
Please join our webinar featuring Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, who will review the top 10 questions you should ask to reveal your company’s true planning policy. Doing so will demystify your planning process and help you identify major opportunities for financial savings and process improvement.
We are offering this webinar due to the popularity of our blog
“Reveal your Real Inventory Planning and Forecasting Process by asking these 10 questions.” Greg will explain the importance of each question and describe how to interpret the variety of answers you will likely receive. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to document your process more clearly and identify opportunities for financial savings and process improvement. We will allow time for questions and answers and look forward to a robust discussion.
Please register to attend the webinar. If you are interested but not cannot 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!
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); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com
“Choosing and Achieving a Target Service Level” by Smart Software Co-Founder Profiled in Spring 2018 Issue of Foresight
Belmont, Mass., May 17, 2018 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that the Spring 2018 issue of Foresight Magazine features Dr. Thomas Willemain’s article “Choosing and Achieving a Target Service Level.” Len Tashman, Editor of Foresight states: “Tom Willemain describes the primary considerations for setting service-level targets, explaining how software can serve as a valuable aid in this endeavor and offering a case study to illustrate a relatively simple approach – what he calls “service level wins and losses” – by which a company can evaluate how well it is achieving its service level goals. The case study also reveals how important it is to utilize appropriate probability models rather than rely on traditional defaults such as the Normal distribution of demands.”
To read the entire article and to learn more about Foresight please visit https://foresight.forecasters.org/
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 Mitsubishi, Siemens, Disney, FedEx, MARS, and The Home Depot. 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.
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
Discussing Intermittent Demand with Supply Chain Brain’s Bowman
The unique challenges of inventory planning for spare parts, large capital goods and other infrequently or irregularly moving items drives the importance of finding smarter methods to forecast this kind of intermittent demand. Robert Bowman, Editor of Supply Chain Brain Magazine, and I discussed this topic at the October APICS conference in Denver, and video of our conversation is available at Supply Chain Brain‘s website.
Why plan for intermittent demand? Well, why plan for any demand? If you can understand what the likely range of demand will be until you can get more, you will know how much stock to keep in reserve, so you have just enough. This is the heart of demand forecasting and inventory optimization. Intermittent demand is exceptionally difficult to forecast, but this same principle holds true.
Unlike other demand patterns, where historical data suggests regular trends, ebbs and flows, seasonality or other discernible patterns, intermittent demand appears to be random. There are many periods of zero demand interspersed with irregular, non-zero demand. This occurs frequently with service parts, where parts are replaced when they break, and you just don’t know when that will occur. Most service parts inventories (70% or more!) can experience intermittent demand. Demand for specialized or configured products is also likely to be intermittent.
Supply Chain Brain has made the more in-depth discussion of this topic Bowman and I shared available here. For new visitors to Supply Chain Brain, a quick account sign-up is required to access the video.
Jeff Scott serves as Vice President, Marketing & Alliances for Smart Software.
Managing spare parts presents numerous challenges, such as unexpected breakdowns, changing schedules, and inconsistent demand patterns. Traditional forecasting methods and manual approaches are ineffective in dealing with these complexities. To overcome these challenges, this blog outlines key strategies that prioritize service levels, utilize probabilistic methods to calculate reorder points, regularly adjust stocking policies, and implement a dedicated planning process to avoid excessive inventory. Explore these strategies to optimize spare parts inventory and improve operational efficiency.
Smart Software is pleased to announce the award of US Patent 11,656,887. The patent directs “technical solutions for analyzing historical demand data of resources in a technology platform to facilitate management of an automated process in the platform.
In today’s unpredictable business climate, we do have to worry about supply chain disruptions, long lead times, rising interest rates, and volatile demand. With all these challenges, it’s never been more vital for organizations to accurately forecast parts usage, stocking levels, and to optimize replenishment policies such as reorder points, safety stocks, and order quantities. In this blog, we’ll explore how companies can leverage innovative solutions like inventory optimization and parts forecasting software that utilize machine learning algorithms, probabilistic forecasting, and analytics to stay ahead of the curve and protect their supply chains from unexpected shocks.
