Definitions

Tactical Plan

In supply chain management, a tactical plan is a medium-term plan that outlines the actions and strategies to achieve the organization's overall supply chain goals and objectives.

Tactical planning typically covers a time frame of six months to two years, and it focuses on implementing the strategic plan.

In SIMCEL it refers to the Plans that are created regularly (weekly, monthly…) and that are used to create the committed plan.

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Note: Beyond the "Tactical Plan," SIMCEL features a "Budget Plan" or Strategic Plan, aimed at setting broad business goals across 2 to 5 years, focusing on key areas like brand, channels, and regions. More details on this plan will be discussed later in the documentation.

Creating a new Tactical Plan

By clicking "+ Plan" you get access to the SIMCEL Plan menu:

To Create a New "Tactical Plan" (e.g. a plan for February 2024):

Select "Create a new plan"

Select "Tactical plan"

Set the Title of the plan "Feb 2024"

Select the Forecasting Method. You can try the Light Gradient-Boosting Machine (LightGBM) method

Select the "Plan Period" - Feb 2024 - Jan 2025

Add description (optional)

Click on "Create"

The screen shows a loading page that represents the forecaster generating the demand projection for the new plan which may take a few minutes:

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Once the loading completes, you've successfully created your first plan in SIMCEL to forecast your future demand!

The default scenario displayed is the "Forecast Base", which shows the unbiased demand projection free from any event influencing the demand.

The Demand chart widget shows a line chart that displays a time series of the demand and the total of the displayed period on the left-hand side for each scenario.

Filtering Events in the Event Timeline

The event timeline provides the same filters as the Demand planning page. It allows the user to filter the events based on their impacted segments.

Create a Future Demand Planning Scenario

Similarly to "Actual Data" we can access the "Event Management page" in a "Tactical Plan" and create "Demand Planning Events":

Create different types of Trade and Marketing Events:

Event with 1 impact on Sub-segments:

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Supposing that we want to create an event where the demand of all Promotion products on Non tender channel dropped. To be more specific:

Decrease the demand by "30%" for Category "Promotion" for the "Non tender" Channel

Name the new event "Non-Tender Promotion Demand Drop"

Select "Demand Adjustment" as an event type

Name the version Name "V1"

Select the period from April 2024 to September 2024

In the product search box type and select "Promotion"

In the customer search box type and select "Non tender" Channel

In the "Adjustment on Demand" section, select "Decrease" and set it to "30%"

Save the event.

Event with multiple impacts on multiple segments:

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Supposing that we want to create an event where the demand of Product A is switched to Product B in Wholesaler sub-channel. To be more specific:

Decrease the demand by "15%" for Product "Product A"for the "Wholesaler" Sub-channel

Increase the demand by "12%" for Product "Product B" Brand for the "Wholesaler" Sub-channel

Name the new event "Demand-Switch"

Select "Demand Adjustment" as an event type

Name the version Name "V1"

Add the First Affected Segment:

In the product search box type and select "Product A" Brand

In the customer search box type and select "Wholesaler" channel

In the "Adjustment on Demand" section, select "Decrease" and set it to "15%"

Select the period from Oct 2024 to Dec 2024

Add the Second Affected Segment:

Click on "Add Another Segment Affected by the Event" and in the new box:

In the product search box type and select "Product B" Brand

In the customer search box type and select "Wholesaler" channel

In the "Adjustment on Demand" section, select "Increase" and set it to "12%"

Select the period from Oct 2024 to Dec 2024

Save the event.

Create a Scenario with one or multiple Trade and Marketing Events:

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In this section, we will try to add the above events to a new scenario called Scenario 2 Events

Go back to the demand planning page and click on "Add Scenario" and "Create a new Scenario":

Set the name of the scenario Scenario 2 Events

Select the event version Non-Tender Promotion Demand Drop, Demand-Switch

Save

You can see the events now are reflected in the scenario’s demand:

Select a scenario to be the execution plan

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This section will guide you on converting the specific scenario of your choice into a plan that will be used as reference for the entire business.

First, you need to make sure that your Scenario is shown on the main page (You can refer to this section).

Next, click the "3 dots menu" icon and select "Make Primary". Upon successful selection of the scenario as the execution plan, a "P" symbol will appear.