Plex Systems Extends Connected Supply Chain

Manufacturing cloud leader unveils plans for predictive demand forecasting and machine learning to the Plex Supply Chain Planning suite.

ATLANTA, Ga., May 9, 2017 – Plex Systems, the leader in cloud ERP for manufacturing, today announced plans to add predictive demand forecasting and machine learning to the Plex Supply Chain Planning suite. Plex is the only cloud solution providing integrated supply chain planning and manufacturing execution, enabling collaborative planning that includes suppliers, multi-site production operations, sales and forecasting, and customers.   

Plex Supply Chain Planning: Visibility and Control

The Plex Manufacturing Cloud integrates supply chain planning, enterprise resource planning and manufacturing execution into a seamless solution. With Plex, manufacturers can build strategic, data-driven plans that instantly adapt to changes in supply, production, inventory and customer demand.

Today, corporate planners can:

• Sense a change in demand, evaluate multiple alternative responses and coordinate rescheduled production and procurement
• Communicate a supply disruption and act to reshape demand or redeploy inventory to ensure customer service
• Support collaborative sales and operations planning based on a single system of record for global demand, supply, inventory, production and cost information

Predictive Demand Forecasting

Building on the power of this connected supply chain solution, Plex is extending regression analysis to continue its efforts to improve demand forecasting. New capabilities will include automated analysis of multiple extended data sets, including Internet of Things (IoT) data, and external inputs such as industry forecasts, social and economic data. New predictive capabilities will improve the accuracy of demand forecasting, while also streamlining and automating efforts that have traditionally relied on complex, time consuming data collection, spreadsheets and calculations. Predictive Demand Forecasting is slated for Q4 2017.

Machine Learning

Further extending its strategic capabilities, Plex is introducing Machine Learning, initially to automate purchasing and production planning processes. Machine learning is ideal for statistical analysis, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to continuously track and analyze actions and outcomes to improve planning models.

• The new solution will learn the best approaches to generating a demand plan, improving accuracy with little or no user intervention.
• Plex machine learning capabilities will also track past buying patterns and apply them to future requisitions based on outcomes.
• Plex Machine Learning capabilities are planned for Q1 2018.

Comments on the News

“Plex is delivering the first fully connected supply chain planning suite, using data from inside and outside the organization to deliver highly accurate planning that is also responsive to the dynamic nature of manufacturing businesses,” said Jim Shepherd, group vice president for strategy at Plex. “Predictive forecasting and machine learning have the potential to further transform how companies strategically plan and compete in the marketplace, tapping into new data and analysis capabilities to better meet customer demands while driving massive efficiency at the same time.”