Demand planning workspace

For commercial planners at specialist distributors, turn historical demand, promotions and customer commitments into demand scenarios and assumption history. Address the recurring problem: forecasts hide assumptions and cannot explain revisions. The pilot measures forecast error and planning adoption against the buyer's current method, before the larger build.

Validate baseline inputs, confirm definitions and constraints, select editable assumptions, calculate feasible alternatives, inspect sensitivities, let the responsible person approve a plan, and compare later actuals with the recorded assumptions. Start with historical demand, promotions and customer commitments and finish with demand scenarios and assumption history.

How the AI works

Extract input context and explain scenario differences. Use deterministic calculations or explicit optimization for quantities, compatibility, dates and prices. Show uncertain assumptions. Never let generated prose silently change the calculation rules.

Safeguards

Make operational states and ownership explicit. Validate data and require appropriate approval before purchases, scheduling commitments or external system writes. Validate source access and reviewer availability during the pilot. Maintain customer-level access, data deletion controls and a record of final approvals.

What to build first

Begin with commercial planners at specialist distributors and one recurring use case. Build the first two modules: validate historical periods; model seasonality. Provide operator assistance for the third module: add promotion assumptions. Deliver demand scenarios and assumption history through a manual review queue. Perform other necessary full-scope functions manually during the pilot. Include all applicable access, accuracy and professional-review controls from the start.

What it can connect to

Orders, inventory, supplier files, process documents and workflow records. Read-only operational exports, calendars and finance or inventory records as relevant. Start with plan exports and retain human approval for execution. These are candidate integration categories, not verified supported connectors.

The screens in detail

Place editable drivers and constraints beside a clearly labeled scenario output. Include a baseline view, comparison chart or schedule, and an assumptions history. Let users trace a proposed quantity or date back to its inputs. Keep forecasts distinct from actual results. In this product, the first view is demand drivers, followed by scenario view and backtest results.