British Bakels to improve forecast accuracy with sofco Planning
As businesses continue to prioritise sustainability and decarbonisation, the role of planning software in achieving these goals has become increasingly important. It can help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and adopt sustainable practices throughout the supply chain.
Within sofco Planning various environmental constraints can be defined in order to limit overall production in line with the maximum level of CO2, water usage etc.
Read on as we delve deeper into some of the specific planning software solutions that comprise sofco Planning and detail how they help reduce carbon emissions in the supply chain.
Demand Planning
Demand Planning helps businesses accurately forecast customer demand, enabling them to optimise production and reduce waste. By reducing the amount of excess inventory, you can also reduce the carbon emissions associated with manufacturing and transportation as CO2 , for example, is categorised as a by-product so a future inventory projection would give the amount of CO2 being produced. This information would support future decision making, along with accurate demand planning designed to help businesses avoid overproduction and unnecessary transportation, reduce their carbon emissions, and improve sustainability.
Supply Planning
By improving supplier performance and reducing lead times, businesses can reduce the amount of inventory and transportation needed, again implementing the categorisation of CO2 as a by-product, for example. This can lead to significant reductions in carbon emissions, as fewer shipments and less inventory translate to a much reduced carbon footprint.
Scheduling
By implementing Scheduling software, businesses will improve their production schedules to reduce downtime and improve efficiency. By maximizing production throughput, businesses can reduce the amount of time spent in production and, in turn, reduce the amount of energy and resources needed, perhaps adopting a sustainably focused set of constraints such as CO2 , water or energy usage generally. By minimizing the amount of energy needed for production, businesses can reduce their carbon emissions and improve sustainability.
Sales and Operations Planning
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) helps businesses align their sales and production plans, ensuring that production is matched to demand and the overall business objectives. This can help businesses avoid overproduction and waste, reducing carbon emissions and improving sustainability. By enabling better communication between sales and production teams, S&OP can also help businesses optimize their inventory levels and reduce transportation needs, further reducing carbon emissions. Specifically, with sofco Planning, we can build in assumptions on future costs of raw material, energy and waste and roll these values into the finished product for use in decision making regarding future sourcing and finished goods pricing.
Trade Promotions Management
By utilising Trade Promotions Management software, businesses can reduce their waste output by cutting back on overproduction and unnecessary distribution. With accurate forecasting and planning, promotions can be tailored to actual demand, reducing the amount of excess inventory that needs to be produce, distributed, and ultimately wasted. Additionally, businesses can optimise their supply chain and transportation needs, reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability, efficiency, and profitability.
Collaborative Forecaster
Improving collaboration can have a positive impact on the environment by reducing waste and the associated carbon emissions. With better collaboration, teams can work together to optimise production schedules, reduce excess inventory, and minimize transportation needs. This can result in more efficient use of resources and reduced carbon footprint throughout the supply chain. By using planning software to improve collaboration, businesses can take a proactive approach to sustainability and contribute to the global effort to combat climate change.
Summary
It’s widely accepted that planning software plays a vital role in reducing carbon emissions and improving sustainability in the supply chain. By implementing any element of sofco Planning with its tailored algorithms designed to give you full visibility regarding future costs of resources and inventory planning in a sustainable way, businesses can reduce their carbon footprint, improve sustainability, and help combat the effects of climate change. In 2023, with the increasing importance of sustainability in the business world, it is more important than ever for businesses to act and adopt a solution to decarbonise their value chain.
