Dynamic Channel Fulfillment

ICON Supply Chain Management has developed new solutions that specifically meet the complex and dynamic customer requirements in direct and indirect channel fulfillment.  These business process capabilities can optimize and control both channel and direct order fulfillment across complex supply networks, including multiple external or internal factories that supply to global markets. 

The benefits realized by these global consumer electronics providers include:

• Precisely aligned fulfillment to promotions and specific classes of demand to capture more sales
• Reduced response time to re-align supply by 50% to better capture demand changes
• Immediately increased product availability by 15% through better allocations from same supply
• Reduced planner efforts by 75% with more focus on exceptions
• Single point of control for all allocation decisions and delivery commitments
• Single point of control over fulfillment execution to meet commitments and maximize profits
• Immediate what-if simulations for product availability scenarios and demand shaping possibilities

Simple and Highly Effective Business Processes

ICON provides very flexible and configurable capabilities to precisely manage channel and direct fulfillment models, with single to multiple sites in one high performance solution. 

ICON provides planners a simple, but powerful business process to maintain a single point of control over complex and dynamic demand allocations.

The ICON demand allocations process can start with any level of demand granularity, such as specific customers and channels.  Each demand is further separated into classes of demand type for allocations.   For example, previously committed demand is separated from net upside requests from channel partners. Other demand classes may include a request to pull-in demand committed to in the previous week, demand by time bucket, and promotions requirements. 

Business rules then determine how the supply-to-demand allocations are processed, which in turn, determine the committed delivery schedule to customers and channels.  These business rules are highly configurable and can be set for each granular unit of separated demand and class.  Planners may also define allowable product substitutions to improve demand fulfillment plans.  The result is a highly flexible and manageable single point of control for allocations. The calculation result is extremely quick (usually in seconds) and allows for simulations to determine the best allocation plan.