It has often happened to me that an idea comes to my head, and I think it is the most original; I consult Google and find that it already exists, that many people have been developing it for a while…Well, this is not the current case.
Of “Supply Chain Planning as a Service” (PAS), little is written on this subject in my sources of consultation, except for one or two companies, with particular approaches and an article that only has the title on the subject. Because I let myself be carried away by logic and the imagination to come up with a concept that could be very important for companies in the future.
I would dare to say that demand and supply planning is the most complicated process that companies face today… in fact, I referred to these two issues in my previous article published on Linkedin: “Big Data + Artificial Intelligence. Where are the sales forecasts going?” I exposed the requirements towards which demand planning directed in modern times and the tools available to achieve a more precise demand number.
It does not matter that it is a repetition to talk about the volatility of the markets, the need for shorter delivery times, the demands in innovation and customization, which customers demand more every day and complicate the process each time.
Nor does it matter to talk again about the fierce competition that occurs every day for the lowest price, in most economic sectors, adding to the above the excessive pressure that often exerted on companies for results.
However, the tools that most companies have to do supply chain planning work have not changed since they were invented in the 1950s… which has led to a proliferation of Excel in our Supply departments. … Excel is an unsuitable tool for this.
Why is the above happening? Why, if we have advanced so much technologically in the last 30 or 40 years, the companies, tools, and methodologies with which demand and supply planning are carried out, have not evolved at the same rate?
In the second part of this article, I continue with some hypotheses to these questions.
