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Supply Chain Visibility — More Than Meets the Eye

The need for, and the difficulty with, achieving global visibility manifested itself when data became distributed across the supply chain with the onset of outsourcing. Outsourcing manufacturing operations increases the complexity of the enterprise and moves management of critical operations outside of its four walls, replacing the traditional single supply chain, with a complex supply network comprising of a multitude of partners. Achieving all-inclusive visibility is no easy feat when you are faced with various geographically dispersed sites and partners, each using disparate data systems.

What it is:

With RapidResponse®, you regain supply chain visibility across your multi-tier, multi-enterprise supply chain networks.

RapidResponse integrates with multiple, disparate ERP systems from throughout the global supply chain. In addition, since supply chain data is often in a variety of systems, RapidResponse also supports data integration from spreadsheets, EDI transactions, demand planning systems, point-of-sale (POS) systems and many others.

How it works:

• Administrators can schedule data imports as desired to have the most up-to-date information to solve specific business challenges.
• Input data includes parts, BOMs, demands, supplies, allocations, and inventories. You have the data and the analytics necessary to model multiple processes, including master production scheduling (MPS), material requirements planning (MRP), capacity planning, order promising, and full-level pegging.
• Supply chain data brought into RapidResponse is made accessible via a browser-based spreadsheet interface. You get access to a role-based library of configurable workbooks that provide users the view into the data that is important to you.
• Configurable dashboards enable you to understand the state of business operations at a glance and monitor performance from a user-defined perspective.
• Information can be shared through the use of scenarios, which are separate instances of the entire RapidResponse dataset. You can perform "what-if" analysis by creating scenarios in seconds, modifying the data in them to simulate a change, and then sharing them with a team of individuals for their input. When the analysis is done, RapidResponse has tools to allow you to compare several resolution alternatives against key corporate metrics to determine which scenario best meets corporate goals.

How it's different:

RapidResponse doesn't just consolidate data and pass it around. Beyond offering global supply chain visibility, you are armed with powerful analytical tools to put that visibility to work. Supply chain analytics can be configured in RapidResponse to emulate the analytics used by the host ERP systems. When there is a change in demand or supply at any level of the extended supply chain, it invokes all of the imbedded ERP analytics of the respective host systems to provide immediate visibility into the impact across the organization.

Why it's important:

When issues arise (e.g. a demand change, order drop-in, supply disruption), as they always will, it is neither the time for ERP reports or queries, nor the time to "dig for data" or perform ad hoc analysis using spreadsheets. It is a time for rapid decisions and action, requiring easily accessible and up-to-date information from across the extended supply chain.

With RapidResponse you can dramatically reduce the time it takes to "crunch" through the data, ultimately reducing the cycle time it takes to identify and respond to demand and supply misalignments.

Combining supply chain visibility with the analytical capabilities of RapidResponse results in fast supply chain analysis across the enterprise regardless of number and locations of data systems.