According to the company, the new applications will help food and beverage manufacturers improve long- and mid-range production planning to help them make sure the right amount of the right products are available at the right time to meet seasonal and promotional peaks in demand.
The Lawson Stock Build Optimizer helps companies visualize their overall plan for building and maintaining an inventory of finished products. It then offers tools that allow them to perform multiple ‘what if’ scenarios to simulate the consequences of different long-range planning decisions.
The company has said that the Lawson Planning Workbench for food and beverage helps manufacturers improve mid-range planning decisions as they balance changes in demand and supply availability during production. Companies can visualize their total coverage days for each product to guide production planning decisions for the next few weeks or months.
The application then captures and provides a view of production variables, such as changes in customer orders, delivery schedules, employee shifts and aging inventory. This allows planners to conduct ‘what if’ modeling before deciding how to prioritize production for specific products and orders to help avoid stock-outs, inventory write-offs or the need to temporarily open additional production lines.
Vicki Griffith, marketing director of food and beverage at Lawson Software, said: Food and beverage companies often choose between losing sales if they don’t produce enough product to meet demand spikes and writing off perishable products if they produce too much. These new products will help manufacturers analyze an increasingly complex set of supply chain variables to help them optimize production plans, lower inventory costs and enhance customer service.
