Integrated Supply Plannig - A New Approach of Digital Logistics

Considering new challenges in logistics planning and supply processes, companies are forced to plan their supply chains relating to more flexibility, effectiveness and cost reduction. Today, supply processes are planned once and never changed due to new demand or capacity situations. This article will introduce a new approach of integrated logistics planning combining demand and capacity planning (DCP) with supply planning concepts. The result is an Logistic Assistance System (LAS) as a new generation of Digital-Logistics-Software, which allows dynamic supply chain planning by providing DCP-functionalities with a simulation based approach. The developed simulation component is able to handle the complexity of high-value-added branches with efficient algorithms, to forecast the supply chain behaviour (future stock range, dynamic processes and resulting costs) taking different scenarios into account. It has been demonstrated to produce convincing results in different projects.