Before You Start with Supply Chain
Supply Chain Planning appears under Inventory & Warehouse once Tier 1 is licensed. What you can see and change still depends on supply-chain permissions on your role under Settings → Users & roles.
What you need
| You'll need | Why |
|---|---|
| Inventory module | Items, warehouses, demand history, requisitions |
| Demand & Replenishment Pro (Tier 1) | Supply Chain Planning menus appear |
| Warehouse Management | Expected for multi-site planning; used by the sidebar gate with Inventory |
| Purchase / Sales (recommended) | Open orders and sales history improve forecasts and suggestions |
| Manufacturing (optional) | Enables BOM Explosion Runs and dependent demand |
| Enterprise Supply Chain Optimization (Tier 2) | Unlocks Network Optimization and DDMRP menus |
| View supply chain planning (and related permissions) | Missing menus usually mean missing permission or module |
Ask your company administrator if a menu you expect is not visible.
Finding your way around
Open Inventory & Warehouse → Supply Chain Planning.
On each screen, click the ? next to the page title for a short in-app explanation of what the page is for.
Tier 1 menus
| Menu | What you do here |
|---|---|
| Forecasting Workbench | Review and generate item forecasts; overrides; like-item; consensus |
| Seasonality Profiles | Create and maintain seasonal index sets |
| Promotions | Calendar events and uplift factors |
| Exceptions | Planner attention queue |
| Optimization | Budget, service-level targets, run allocation, simulate turns |
| Suggestions | Advisory purchase suggestions — Action or Dismiss |
| Scenarios | What-if parameter sets; compare; promote |
| S&OP Cycles | Period planning cycle and approval |
| Supplier Portal | Invite and manage supplier portal accounts |
| Forecast Shares | Share forecasts with suppliers (their SKUs only) |
| PO Commitments | Request supplier commitments on supply |
| BOM Explosion Runs | Dependent demand runs (only if Manufacturing is licensed) |
Tier 2 menus (Network Optimization)
| Menu | What you do here |
|---|---|
| Warehouse Networks | Parent/child warehouse hierarchy and transit lead times |
| Network Optimization | Run network safety-stock / pooling; action or dismiss transfers |
| Decoupling Points | Activate / deactivate DDMRP buffer points |
| Buffer Configuration | Lead Time Factor / Variability Factor defaults and overrides |
| Buffer Board | Red / Yellow / Green status by buffer |
| DDMRP Suggestions | Buffer-driven replenishment suggestions |
Recommended setup order
Tier 1
- Confirm Inventory items have sales history (or plan to use like-item for new SKUs) — see Inventory overview.
- Create seasonality profiles for seasonal categories.
- Add any known promotions.
- Open the Forecasting Workbench — generate or select best-fit for priority items.
- Set Optimization budget and critical service-level targets; run allocation.
- Review Suggestions; action a few into requisitions to validate the path.
- Create an S&OP Cycle for the current period when the team is ready.
- Invite key suppliers and seed forecast shares.
- If Manufacturing is licensed, confirm nightly BOM Explosion Runs appear after jobs run.
Tier 2 (after Tier 1 is stable)
- Build a warehouse network (central DC → regional sites) with transit days.
- Run Network Optimization on a pilot item set; practice Action on a transfer suggestion.
- For demand-driven SKUs, set up DDMRP buffers.
- Do not expect both network recommendations and DDMRP suggestions for the same active decoupling point — the engines exclude each other by design.
:::tip Start small You do not need every menu configured before the first useful forecast. Seasonality, a few priority SKUs on the workbench, then optimization is enough to prove value. :::