Demand fulfillment with time and budget limits

Globalization and sustained growth of international trade have increased competition in most of the markets. Today, virtually all major firms have a significant and growing presence in business outside their country of origin. Transfers between subsidiaries of the same company account for most of the trade between industrialized countries. Many companies recognize the opportunities for selling their products in several new markets through a number of sales channels. The main focus for an enterprise is to stabilize the demand, price, cost and risk fluctuations for their certain business areas and to feed constantly their sales channels and to take the right position in changing market conditions. Better logistics, removal of trade barriers, opportunities in the emerging markets, improved communications in businesses and among consumers are the main factors behind scenes of this new world approach. Due to increasing competition, companies are working with very low-profit margins. To increase profits, sustain their operations and compete, companies are aiming to reduce operational costs such as production, transportation, setup and inventory holding costs. For brand owners and manufacturers, solving the response management need in their demand management and fulfillment operations represents the largest opportunity to increase customer satisfaction, enhance margins and attain more predictable revenue in the entire value chain. The main objective of this study is to develop a decision support system for supply chain network that will reduce operational costs, increase customer service levels, and increase the sensitivity of the planning department to rapidly changing conditions where profit margins are low. A planning system consisting of integrated models such as integrated and daily capacity planning and it is solved by a mixture of optimization methods and heuristic methods. The planning system is implemented in the ICRON Supply Chain Optimization System. With this study enhanced customer service level, improved responsiveness, improved due dates are observed.