New science-based forecasting enhancements break through to new levels of sense and respond performance

ATLANTA, Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Blue Ridge, a leader in supply chain planning and pricing solutions, announced today general availability of its newest product, Supply Chain Planning 180. Release 180 leverages new machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced features that unlock the science behind demand sensing capabilities—Demand Classification Enhancement, Intermittent Demand Forecasting, and Intelligent Min/Max Replenishment.

“Supply Chain Planning 180 is a result of the investment in innovation Blue Ridge continues to make in exploring the science of sensing and forecasting,” said Jim Byrnes, chief executive officer, Blue Ridge Global. “This software release is a direct result of ideation and the co-creation of solutions across the Blue Ridge community of customers and partners. These new AI and machine learning capabilities will empower our customers to more readily take advantage of opportunities presented in this rapidly-changing marketplace; that they would have otherwise missed.”

Blue Ridge Supply Chain Planning Release 180 includes:

  • Demand Classification Enhancement takes advantage of demand patterns, including product lifecycle while considering demand sparsity, volatility and velocity. The Demand Classification process is now being used to drive additional decision processes in forecasting, eliminating the need for buyers to re-run seasonal profiles.
  • Intermittent Demand Forecasting (IDF) separates demand hits and varying spaces, providing a robust/stable forecast, a more consistent safety stock and less overreaction to zero demand forecasts.
  • Intelligent Min/Max (IMM) Replenishment is a fundamentally different approach to deal with intermittent and slow-moving SKUs. Instead of forecast approach, IMM approaches the problem from the service and inventory levels to support the customer experience perspective, while making it easier to auto-manage long-tail items for a better in-stock and service level.

Blue Ridge Cloud-Native Supply Chain Planning creates fully configured orders and economically optimized company goals for up to 24 months in advance. These precise order projections are completely automated without user intervention and adhere to order schedules, SKU level rounding requirements, and order level constraints. The solution predicts daily store demand, distribution center demand, receipts and on-hand inventory to create the optimal plan considering the unique dynamics of every item, location, channel and supplier.