Why Wait?

When a customer changes an order, or supply is late, how long does it take for you to understand the operational impact? When evaluating different scenarios to address an unexpected disruption, are you satisfied with having to wait hours or days to run the scenario simulations? In an era where people are becoming increasingly accustomed to having instant, real-time information (Google, Twitter and Facebook), it seems unnatural that in the business world, people are required to wait hours for batch data runs to complete or must manually figure out a solution by analyzing and manipulating data offline using Excel spreadsheets.

At the core of RapidResponse® is our patented in-memory what-if simulation technology. It allows anyone to simulate anything in seconds before committing to changes that affect the business. For example:

Understand what customers are impacted and how they are impacted by a change in supply
Provide a customer with an accurate order promise date in a matter of minutes
Evaluate S&OP scenarios down to the mix level to test feasibility of the overall plan

How does it work?

RapidResponse imports data from your ERP systems, as well as the ERP systems of your contract manufacturers if you desire. RapidResponse is updated on a frequency you determine — it could be on a daily or even an hourly basis. The data — which includes detailed information such as parts, orders, BOMs — is stored in a proprietary in-memory database that is optimized for running high performance advanced planning analytics. RapidResponse also knows and mimics the MRP logic for all the major commercial ERP systems, and incorporates lead times, constraints, multi-tier bill of materials and other information needed to model your supply chain. When a user creates a new what-if scenario (makes a change to the data), RapidResponse will completely regenerate MRP within seconds.

How does RapidResponse compare to the legacy systems in place at a typical brand owner organization, where they have manufacturing operations at several different sites that may be running different ERP systems? For one Kinaxis customer, this is the before and after picture:

* This represents the amount of computing time to completely regenerate MRP and does not include the time required to consolidate data from all sites.

The dramatic speed at which RapidResponse can model a change provides you with the ability to make better decisions, quickly. In today's dynamic market, you must be able to assess situations in seconds, not hours or days. When a single MRP run takes several hours, there is little opportunity to investigate and evaluate alternatives, let alone swiftly reach a decision. With RapidResponse, you can quickly perform a deep analysis of the full financial and operations performance impact of demand, supply and S&OP decisions prior to execution. Being able to evaluate all of your options as you plan, and respond quickly and confidently to unexpected change is today's business imperative.