Real-time nature of execution systems
Planning has a role, but warehouse management providers still believe execution is where the action is.
By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 3/8/2007
While supply chain planning is back on the radar screen of many logistics professionals, many providers of warehouse management and supply chain execution solutions still believe that execution is where the action is. “There are pieces of planning functionality in a best-of-breed supply chain execution suite,” says Chad Collins, director of product strategy for HighJump Software“Planning is central to a transportation management system, and labor management and slotting have planning capabilities that are specific to the DC. But those are what I would describe as execution-style planning. They’re real time in nature.”
It’s the real-time nature of execution systems that distinguish them from traditional planning.
“In a traditional solution, you’d have one plan for manufacturing, one plan for the distribution center and one plan for the transportation department,” says Collins. “Since the plans were run in a batch-based planning system, the plan was only as good as when it was run, and even best-in-class companies could only plan once a day.”
In an execution-centric approach to manufacturing and distribution, planning is still required at the enterprise level to forecast demand and position inventory in the supply chain. After all, you have to start somewhere. “Supply chain planning aggregates the supply chain,” says Collins.
Real-time execution systems, enabled by event management and visibility systems, allow you to manage the variability that occurs after the plan is run. “In this vision, you run a plan,” says Collins. “But as things change, an event management system can notify all of the players involved of what has to be done without waiting to replan. In this vision, you can act now.”
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