Flowcasting

Been a long time since we looked at JDA's Flowcasting system.  We examined it even before its acquisition by JDA.  Still don't know too many people who have been exposed to it.  So when I happened on this piece in JDA's blog was worthwhile to look at it again, with the help of a well known supply chain game.    Have reconnected to their blog.

The Power of Flowcasting: Live Supply Planning Collaboration & Analytics – Part 1
By Tom Drake-Supply Chain, Supply Chain Management-  

It’s been a few months since I shared the learnings we’ve garnered from our Collaborative Flow Planning workshop – AKA – The Beer Game. Most supply chain professionals are familiar with this game and the supply chain planning pitfalls it exposes. Today, I’d like to focus on the second part of the game that was played, which was enabled by the Collaboration Workbench platform in JDA Flowcasting. We’re going to take a deeper look at how this platform was used to cut costs by two-thirds compared to those playing the game without the help of JDA Flowcasting  .... "

Redprairie and Flowcasting

I see that my old colleague Andre Martin now delivers his novel supply chain analysis system from the company Redprairie.  You can find out much more about that here.   Was very impressed by its simplicity and usefulness for difficult supply management.  " ... A completely integrated retail supply chain is now possible – with the potential to provide substantial bottom-line benefits for both manufacturers and retailers. Changes at the stores can be instantly visible to the manufacturer's plants, and everyone in the extended supply chain can be working from a single set of demand forecast numbers .... ".  See also his book: Flowcasting the Retail Supply Chain.