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Manufacturers need to manage the trade-offs between maximizing production capacity, minimizing production and transportation expenses, and minimizing inventory assets while maximizing fill rates. The high cost of plant and equipment assets requires that assets utilization is a key driver behind the product plan. Multiple inputs to the plan may include historical demand data, sales and operations plans, and production capacity constraints of internal and outsourced production facilities, raw material supply constraints, and customer and/or market prioritization objectives. These tradeoffs differ significantly from the purchasing and forecasting requirements of a retailer or distributor.
Retail distributors and wholesale distributors need to maximize order fill rates while concurrently minimizing working capital invested in inventory assets. Buyers often need to hit vendor-imposed item and/or purchase order constraints to minimize the cost of inbound transportation. Purchasing systems may be required to procure goods from international locations in multiple currencies. Forecasting systems may need to be directly integrated into the purchase order creation process such that suggested purchase orders are presented to buyers who then manipulate the suggested order until it is released to the vendor.
MWPVL International understands the unique complexities associated with different vertical markets and industries because we have worked with many companies to manage the important details that translate into their purchasing and inventory management strategies. MWPVL International has also cultivated a deep understanding of the software market to ensure that our clients have an understanding of which purchasing and forecasting applications are most suitable to their size of business, industry and market vertical.
MWPVL International works with suppliers, customers and business partners to provide trusted experience in helping companies with the following types of questions:
- Which purchasing and forecasting software application is best suited for our company, size of business, transaction volumes, preferred computing platform and financial budget?
- Should we deploy a best of breed purchasing and forecasting system or should we acquire one within an integrated ERP or MRP or DMS system?
- What are the features and functions that we should expect from a purchasing and forecasting application? What differences do the different technologies have and why are they important?
- What are the main differences between the purchasing and forecasting solutions available within the existing market place and which vendors should our company evaluate based on our inventory management requirements and industry requirements?
- Is there a structured process that we should follow when selecting a purchasing and forecasting application to ensure that we have done the appropriate due diligence to protect our company’s interests?
MWPVL International Inc. provides strictly unbiased advice and trusted experience in helping companies through the following efforts:
- Developing the business case and financial justification for a purchasing and/or forecasting application
- Purchasing and forecasting requirements definition and RFP development
- Development of structured software demonstration scripts
- Vendor/solution evaluation and selection
- Software negotiation and acquisition
- Developing the project budget, plan, schedule, internal and external resource requirements for deployment
- Project Management
- Software implementation
- Ongoing support
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