Delphus has created a powerful, yet user-friendly Distribution Requirements Planning system. The users can view data and make changes based on how they want and need to manage their products. The system will give users the tools they need to create accurate and timely information that can be presented to manufacturing plants in order to plan production output.

The DRP Process
DRP creates a recommended order that is sent to manufacturing plants in order to plan production. There are two types of generation methods that are taken into account based on the type of SKU defined.

· Push Method – these SKU’s have a lead-time and desired stocking levels associated with them. The DRP generation takes into account the current sales forecast, previous period sales forecast, lead times, desired stocking levels, current on-hand inventory (and on-order positions to create the requirements that are passed on to the plant.

· Pull Method – These SKU’s do not have any lead-time or desired safety stock requirements associated with them. A rolling forecast is sent to the manufacturing plant as the requirements for these items. There are no requirements generated with DRP logic for any of these items.

‘Version Control’ Conversion
A SKU can have several versions associated with it. These versions can be due to updated packaging etc. Exclusive versions will have DRP generated for that version only. The Exclusive Versions are products that are exclusive to themselves. For example, a bottle of Cologne that is labeled with Macy's on it is exclusive and only available for Macy's. Non-Exclusive versions will be combined into the most current version number for all DRP requirements.

PEER Planner/DRP will generate forecasts at the Non-version level. DRP will output the most current version.

Pull/Max Pull Logic
Certain items are manufactured to a sales forecast only. These items are ordered or ’pulled’ when needed. Some pull items are designated as Max Pull. Because a large percentage of items are seasonal, the manufacturing plant cannot produce enough material for the required demand. To ease the capacity constraints at the plants some DRP requirements need to be “pulled” from future months and added to months where the requirements are not as great. For example to accommodate the Christmas season a percentage of August – October is subtracted from these months and added to July. The DRP system is set up to pull a percentage of the demand requirements from the pull months and add this quantity to the month designated as the “pull receipt” month.

Period Order (Fixed-Time) Policy for Safety Stock
PP/DRP generates recommended orders according to a ‘fixed-time’ safety stock logic, taking into account:

· Current inventory
· Due in inventory amounts
· Sales forecast
· Back orders
· Planned receipts
· The quantity pulled for Max Pull items will either be a credit or debit in the calculations depending on whether the month is designated the pull month or the pull receipt month.

The Planned Order takes into account all these factors plus a minimum and multiple order amount and lead time to create the recommended orders.

Firm Planned Order Overrides
Overrides to Planned Orders can be made manually. if desired by the user, an item can be recalculated the months out into the future.

Cost/Retail/Margin
The user can view the details in either Cost, Retail or Margin dollars.

Reporting
DRP offers the following reports:

· 12 month rolling purchase forecast report in units or COG $ with subtotals at the brand, SKU, saleable and non-saleable levels.
· 12 month rolling projected inventory plan in units or COG $, day’s of supply, and brand, SKU, saleable and non-saleable subtotals.