Microsoft 365 Solutions for Efficient Supply & Demand Management

Matching inventory to customer demand sounds simple enough. Essentially, the process involves comparing the sales forecast to what’s available now, what will be available, and where it all needs to go.

But it’s something many greenhouse growers spend an inordinate amount of time on. They try to corral all the spreadsheets floating around that detail the sales forecast, available inventory, production orders, sales orders, and purchase orders. Even if all this information is gathered, it can be difficult to reconcile the numbers.

And it’s almost impossible to drill down into the data to determine why there are shortages or overages of specific items. By the time answers are found, it may be too late to adjust.

A Comprehensive ERP Solution Tailored for Greenhouse Growers

One way many greenhouse growers take on the challenge of managing supply and demand is by turning to SilverLeaf running on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The comprehensive ERP solution includes workflows and reporting tailored for greenhouse grower businesses.

A key feature of SilverLeaf is that greenhouse growers can centralize all their supply and demand data. Reports can be generated instantly, and you can give immediate access to anyone in the business. Just as importantly, everyone knows the reports are based on real-time data, so they can confidently make business decisions.

Starts with the Demand Forecast

The process of managing supply and demand starts with feeding your demand forecast into SilverLeaf. The demand forecast shows what your sales team expects to sell over a period of time. You can then look out over the next week, month, quarter, or any other time span that’s pertinent to your business to see the projected demand—by item, by location, and other item categories. You can also compare this year to last year and see how close the forecasted demand compared to the actual demand.

Comparing Demand to Inventory

The SilverLeaf supply planning engine then analyzes demand forecast in comparison to inventory on hand as well as production orders, sales orders, pre-bookings and procurement orders that have not been fulfilled yet.

Another handy feature of SilverLeaf that can link into the supply planning engine is inventory replenishment points. You can pre-set the safety stock levels at which you want to reorder or start growing new plants, so you won’t run out of inventory before it’s too late to meet the projected customer demand.

SilverLeaf also allows you to factor in seasonal grow times. This includes variances in how long a plant takes to grow when planted in December, for example, compared to the same plant planted in April. Along with the seasonal grow times, SilverLeaf factors in order lead times and production times for how long it takes kit items to arrive and be assembled.

Identifying Inventory Shortages and Overages

The resulting reports generated by the supply planning engine show you what you need to buy, what you need to grow, and the time to order. Another factor SilverLeaf allows you to account for is the required space to grow each plant. By projecting your growth capacity, you can consider strategies if that capacity does not match the projected customer demand.

For example, if you don’t have enough room in your greenhouses to grow all the roses your customers will want around Valentine’s Day, you can consider starting some flowers early and applying methods to keep them alive in storage as you use that same greenhouse space to grow more roses. Or, you might consider purchasing the extra roses you need from another grower.

SilverLeaf also provides an inventory availability matrix that gives you a week-by-week view of the quantity you have available to sell for all your flowers and other items. With the ability to see where you are understocked, you can determine ahead of time which items to grow or purchase.

You can also drill into the numbers in the matrix to analyze why a shortage or overage will occur. Perhaps a customer unexpectedly submitted or canceled an order. Or perhaps a supplier is not delivering their seeds to you on time.

Always Knowing What’s Available to Sell in Real Time

With SilverLeaf, you always know what you have available to sell in real time—because everything is in one system with current updates on customer demand, inventory, sales orders, purchase orders, and production orders. To see SilverLeaf in action and how you can use its features to match your finished goods inventory to customer demand, check out this YouTube demo video on Managing Supply & Demand for Greenhouse Growers as a Competitive Advantage. See how the solution lets you look into the future so you can make sure you always have the necessary inventory to meet the needs of your customers.

If you missed the first three blogs in our series highlighting the different ways greenhouse growers can use technology to optimize different aspects of their daily operations, be sure to check out Production Planning and Production Execution and Data-Driven Decision-Making.

For more information on how SilverLeaf can help your business operate more efficiently, contact Velosio today.