Plex Systems Introduces Machine Learning to Help Companies Improve Demand Forecasting Accuracy

Plex DemandCaster Supply Chain Planning with Machine Learning Increases Predictability and Responsiveness

June 2, 2022 - Plex Systems, a Rockwell Automation company and a leader in cloud-delivered smart manufacturing solutions, today announced new machine learning capabilities for Plex DemandCaster Supply Chain Planning (SCP), enhancing forecast accuracy to improve customer service at lower levels of inventory coverage.

Manufacturers need more sophisticated supply chain planning technology in response to shortages in workforce and raw materials, logistics challenges, and impacts to overall business revenue. Business planners are tasked with forecasting and responding to more “black swan” type events and are looking for innovative ways to include a variety of data sources to expand their planning resources.

Plex DemandCaster Supply Chain Planning unites business functions within the organization with their planning variables to solve inventory problems quickly and proactively, helping planners easily interpret data ​with automated statistical forecasting while enabling a continuous planning and execution feedback loop.​ Now, the addition of machine learning for DemandCaster SCP dramatically advances the automation of pattern recognition and the application of correlated related data to improve forecast accuracy. Higher forecast accuracies cascade through the supply chain planning process by reducing the need to carry extra inventories to buffer against uncertainties.

“The days of steady and dependable supply chains that enable long-term lean and just-in-time replenishment to manage costs are behind us. Businesses now understand that planning and forecasting must include the assumption of disruption and rely on data to navigate this new normal,” commented Ara Surenian, Vice President, Product Management at Plex Systems. “Adding machine learning to Plex DemandCaster Supply Chain Planning empowers customers to overcome supply planning challenges and digitally transform their planning. By infusing the sales forecasting process with machine learning, customers can bring in a wealth of additional data as an input to the forecasting process that a human nor traditional statistical forecasting methods can discern. These additional inputs are used to help calculate and recalibrate the process to improve forecast accuracy.”

Plex offers the only single-instance, multi-tenant software as a service (SaaS) manufacturing platform operating at scale, including solutions for MES, ERP, quality, supply chain planning and management, asset performance management, production monitoring, process automation and analytics. The cloud-native Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform serves over 700 customers and manages more than eight billion transactions per day. In September 2021, Plex was acquired by Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, to expand its industrial cloud software offerings.

Attendees of ROKLive, a Rockwell Automation and Plex Systems event taking place in Orlando, June 13 to 16, can learn more about this innovation in a dedicated session “Advancements of Machine Learning in Supply Chain Planning” presented by Ara Surenian on Tuesday June 14th at 3:00 PM ET.