La Planeación, Pronóstico y Reabastecimiento Colaborativo (CPFR)

El éxito de la cadena de abastecimiento de una empresa no sólo tiene que ver con la comunicación fluida entre los distintos departamentos, sino también con la relación entre la compañía, los proveedores y los clientes.

El balance entre la demanda y el abastecimiento es la premisa fundamental para sostener un gerenciamiento exitoso, contemplando las mediciones de performance, herramientas tecnológicas y el capital humano como vectores del trabajo colaborativo.

Por este motivo es muy importante que antes de entrarnos en un modelo colaborativo debemos tener nuestra cadena de suministro balanceada y comunicada con indicadores como lo presenté en el artículo (Indicadores de desempeño en la cadena de suministro que me llevan a tener una compañía de categoría mundial Clase A Mauricio Urrea)

Comprender la diferencia entre Logística y Supply Chain Management está siendo , para profesiones y ejecutivos, el primer paso para adentrarse en un modelo de gestión que reformula la actividad logística en un punto intermedio entre el proceso secundario y el protagonista puertas adentro de la compañía.

Los desafíos más grandes en cadena de suministro son dos. Por un lado, equilibrar el abastecimiento y la demanda, algo muy difícil de realizar. Se necesita tener mucho o poco abastecimiento, o una muy alta o muy baja demanda. Es una tarea compleja el poder sincronizar ambos puntos.Por otro lado, es necesario obtener el mejor servicio al cliente al menor precio posible.

Debemos reconocer que siempre hay algunos secretos. No es conveniente compartir toda la información. Es prácticamente imposible imaginar una situación de ganancia donde el cliente, el proveedor y la propia empresa vean todo: el plan, la demanda, el abastecimiento, etc.Las empresas deben alinearse lo más posible con sus clientes y sus proveedores, pero sin que ello afecte de manera negativa su negocio.

El equilibrio entre la demanda y el abastecimiento depende de un acercamiento colaborativo a la planificación de la demanda. Las empresas deben acercarse a los clientes -y potenciales clientes también- y entenderlos.Esto es, adelantarse a sus requerimientos, hablar con ellos, averiguar qué está pasando con sus negocios.

Si una empresa no brinda un buen servicio, su cliente trabajará con otra compañía. Pero si la oferta es excesiva, hay que tener en cuenta que se producirán determinados sobre costos, que ponen de manifiesto los problemas no resueltos.En ese sentido, los ejecutivos deben comprender cómo se está desarrollando la competencia, los acuerdos, la complejidad de la demanda y llevar toda esta información a sus compañías. Todo esto es básico para que los departa m e n tos de Ventas y Operaciones puedan comunicarse entre sí y trabajar en conjunto para alcanzar los niveles de servicio propuestos.

Una alternativa es minimizar la cadena de abastecimiento, achicarla, y llevar a cabo los procesos de primera línea en lo que hace a su importancia de una manera más rápida. La velocidad es algo esencial en el mercado. Las empresas deben operar muy rápido y reaccionar positivamente a los cambios de los clientes, sean por un aumento o un descenso en la demanda.

Introduction:

Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR®) is a business practice
that combines the intelligence of multiple trading partners in the planning and fulfillment
of customer demand. CPFR links sales and marketing best practices, such as category
management, to supply chain planning and execution processes to increase availabilitywhile reducing inventory, transportation and logistics costs.

The CPFR Model:

The CPFR reference model provides a general framework for the collaborative aspects
of planning, forecasting and replenishment processes. Figure 1 illustrates this framework,
which can be applied to many industries. A buyer and a seller, as Collaboration
Participants, work together to satisfy the demands of an end customer, who is at the
center of the model.

CPFR Activities:

· Strategy & Planning:
Establish the ground rules for the collaborative relationship.
Determine product mix and placement, and develop event plans for the period.

· Demand & Supply Management:
Project consumer (point-of-sale) demand, as well as order and shipment requirements over the planning horizon

· Execution:
Place orders, prepare and deliver shipments, receive and stock

· Analysis:
Monitor planning and execution activities for exception conditions. Aggregate results, and calculate key performance metrics. Share insights and adjust Plans for continuously improved results.

While these Collaboration Activities are presented in logical order, most companies
are involved in all of them at any moment in time. There is no predefined sequence
of steps. Execution issues can impact strategy, and analysis can lead to adjustments
in forecasts.

Collaboration may also focus on just a subset of the four activities (such as Strategy &
Planning), while the rest of the process is performed through conventional enterprise
processes. These partial implementations are sometimes called “CPFR Lite.”

Distributors may also be participants in the process,
in the buyer role, the seller role, or both. For simplicity,
the remainder of the discussion only identifies retailers
and manufacturers in these roles.
2 These execution activities are often called the
“order to cash” cycle.

Positioning CPFR Activities in Collaborative Commerce:

An effective CPFR program builds upon a firm foundation of synchronized product data
and electronic commerce messaging standards. Figure 2 positions CPFR relativeto the Collaborative Commerce Model

CPFR Tasks:

Figure 3 breaks down the CPFR model to the next level of detail – specific Collaboration
Tasks. There are eight tasks – two for each of the four Collaboration Activities.

Within Strategy & Planning, Collaboration Arrangement is the process of setting the
business goals for the relationship, defining the scope of collaboration and assigning
roles, responsibilities, checkpoints and escalation procedures. The Joint Business Plan
then identifies the significant events that affect supply and demand in the planning
period, such as promotions, inventory policy changes, store openings/closings, and
product introductions.

Demand & Supply Management is broken into Sales Forecasting, which projects
consumer demand at the point of sale, and Order Planning/Forecasting, which
determines future product ordering and delivery requirements based upon the sales
forecast, inventory positions, transit lead times, and other factors.

Execution consists of Order Generation, which transitions forecasts to firm demand,
and Order Fulfillment, the process of producing, shipping, delivering, and stocking
products for consumer purchase.
Analysis tasks include Exception Management, the active monitoring of planning and
operations for out-of-bounds conditions, and Performance Assessment, the calculation
of key metrics to evaluate the achievement of business goals, uncover trends or
develop alternative strategies.

Retail Event Collaboration:

In many retail environments, promotions and other retail events generate the largest
swings in demand, and as a result, the majority of out-of-stocks, excess inventory
and unplanned logistics costs. Consequently, retailers in these highly promoted
channels have focused their collaboration efforts on retail events, where their financial
opportunity is greatest.
The Retail Event Collaboration scenario of CPFR provides an industry-standard approach
to this process. Trading partners develop a collaboration strategy and a joint business
plan for promotions, typically on an annual or quarterly basis. They then work together
to determine the impact of planned events on consumer demand and retail distribution.
As events occur, promotional orders are placed, and delivery takes place. Then the
event is executed in stores. Along the way, exceptions related to event planning or
execution may be identified and resolved. The process concludes with an evaluation
of event performance.

DC Replenishment Collaboration:

DC replenishment collaboration is a CPFR scenario that enhances continuous
replenishment programs such as co-managed inventory or vendor-managed inventory
(VMI). Conventional replenishment programs typically calculate order requirements
in a short lead-time horizon. A single trading partner entity manages the entire process.
By contrast, DC Replenishment Collaboration offers a joint order commitment process
at multiple horizons beyond a single lead-time. DC Replenishment Collaboration enables
manufacturers to adopt a make-to-demand policy, while allowing retailers to minimize
their inventory liability and stock-out risk. Trading partners typically collaborate on DC
withdrawal forecasts, manufacturer-to-retailer DC forecasts, or both. The output of
collaboration is an order or series of orders that are committed over a time horizon.
The buyer and seller support order generation with their buying/re-buying and
production and supply planning organizations respectively.

DC Replenishment Collaboration extends the replenishment process beyond the
buyer’s DC and seller’s finished goods warehouse to encompass all the nodes in the
supply chain – from the store shelf to raw materials. The benefits attributed to DC
replenishment collaboration include:

- Greater visibility to improve replenishment accuracy
- Out-of-stock reduction
- Overstock reduction
- Production capacity aligned to meet customer demand

DC replenishment collaboration also seeks to increase the efficiency of the flow of
product between trading partners, especially in supply chains that have long supply
cycles, heavy, bulky or regulated goods, or complex transportation requirements.
Product flow benefits include optimized order quantities that minimize the operations
costs of picking, loading and unloading and product put-away.

Store Replenishment Collaboration:

As with DC Replenishment, conventional store replenishment programs are executed
by a single trading partner over a single lead-time horizon. Many retailers are now
sharing more responsibility for the store-level availability of products via store-level
collaboration initiatives. Store Replenishment Collaboration leverages the insights of
both the retailer and manufacturer to drive an optimal replenishment plan. Trading
partners typically collaborate on store POS forecasts. Other collaboration points that
influence replenishment include:

- Store clustering
- Replenishment parameters
- Presentation stock
- Assortment optimization

The output of Store Replenishment Collaboration is an order or series of orders that
are committed over a time horizon. The buyer and seller support order generation with
their replenishment planning/buying re-buying and production and supply planning
organizations respectively.

Store collaboration is focused on the closest link to the consumer and consequently
directly influences shelf availability. The benefits attributed to Store Replenishment
Collaboration include greater visibility to consumer take-away, improved replenishment
accuracy, improved in-stocks, overstock reduction, and improved promotional execution.
Trading partners have a direct view of how consumers are responding to new products,
existing shelf distribution and promotional take-away. Manufacturers and upstream
suppliers leverage this information throughout the supply chain for improved operational
execution.

Collaborative Assortment Planning:

Some industries, such as fashion apparel and accessories, follow a seasonal rhythm
of demand. As a result, collaborative planning in this market segment typically has a
horizon of a single season and is performed at seasonal intervals.
The nature of fashion and other short lifecycle products implies that there is minimal
discrete historical data to utilize in the planning cycle. Hence, there is a heavy
dependence on collaborative interpretation of industry trends, consumer tastes and
macroeconomic conditions.
Collaborative Assortment Planning is a process that allows retailers and suppliers to
better coordinate their merchandising decisions to drive maximum profitability for both
constituencies. Trading partners jointly develop an assortment plan, which contains
both visual representations of the product and financial models. The output of this
collaboration process is a planned purchase order containing item commitments
at the UPC (style/color/size) level for each delivery point in the retailer’s enterprise.
The planned order is electronically shared in advance of a market or show, where
sample products are viewed by the buyer and seller and final merchandising decisions
are made.


Mauricio Urrea Ospina