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Introduction

Mantissa offers four powerful functionalities to enhance warehouse management at every decoupling point in your supply chain: Demand Prediction, Lead Time Prediction, Safety Stock Calculation, and Reorder Point Calculation.

Mantissa works by leveraging your historical data: depending on the functionality, it is based on sales orders or on purchase orders.

Sales orders are required for demand prediction, safety stock calculation, and reorder point calculation. Purchase orders are required for lead time prediction, safety stock calculation, and reorder point calculation. The data schema for sales orders and purchase orders is described in the Data Schemas section.

Demand PredictionLead Time PredictionSafety Stock CalculationReorder Point Calculation
Sales Orders✔️✔️✔️
Purchase Orders✔️✔️✔️

Demand Prediction​

Demand Prediction involves forecasting future demand for inventory at various stages of the supply chain. Accurate demand prediction helps ensure that the right amount of inventory is available at the warehouse.

It is based on historical data for sales orders.

For example, if your decoupling point is a finished goods warehouse, Demand Prediction helps forecast the quantity of each product that will be needed, ensuring that the warehouse is stocked appropriately. Similarly, for a raw materials warehouse, it helps predict the amount of raw materials required based on the production plan.

Customizing Invocations​

You can request demand predictions at various aggregation levels: item, classification, and family. Additionally, you can tailor your demand predictions by specifying the prediction horizon and granularity, allowing you to receive forecasts for your desired time period and frequency (e.g., weekly or monthly forecasts). For more details, see Customizing Invocations.

Lead Time Prediction​

Lead Time Prediction involves estimating the time it takes for inventory to be replenished once an order is placed. This includes supplier lead times, production times, and delivery times. Knowing the lead times for each decoupling point allows for better planning and reduces the risk of running out of stock.

It is based on historical data for purchase orders.

For example, for a raw materials warehouse, Lead Time Prediction helps estimate how long it will take for suppliers to deliver the materials needed for production, allowing for timely reordering and avoiding production delays.

Customizing Invocations​

You can request lead time predictions at various aggregation levels: item, classification, and family. Additionally, you can tailor your lead time predictions by specifying the prediction horizon and granularity, allowing you to receive forecasts for your desired time period and frequency (e.g., weekly or monthly forecasts). For more details, see Customizing Invocations.

Safety Stock​

Safety Stock Calculation determines the extra inventory needed to buffer against uncertainties in demand and lead time, ensuring that there is always sufficient stock to meet needs. Safety Stock is critical for absorbing fluctuations and uncertainties, providing a cushion that helps maintain service levels even when demand spikes or supply delays occur.

It is based on both sales orders and purchase orders historical data.

Mantissa offers two types of safety stock:

  • Base safety stock, based on historical data only;
  • Advanced safety stock, which exploits demand and lead time predictions.

Reorder Point​

Reorder Point Calculation determines the inventory level at which a new order should be placed to replenish stock. It is usually computed as the forecast usage during the replenishment lead time plus safety stock. In our case, it is based on the demand prediction, lead time prediction, and safety stock calculation, ensuring that the right amount of inventory is ordered at the right time to prevent stock-outs.

For example, for a raw materials warehouse, Reorder Point Calculation helps determine when to reorder raw materials to ensure that production is not interrupted due to stock-outs.

It is based on both sales orders and purchase orders historical data.

Mantissa offers two types of reorder points:

  • Base reorder point, based on historical data and base safety stock calculation;
  • Advanced reorder point, which exploits demand predictions, lead time predictions, and advanced safety stock calculation.