Recent international events have disrupted supply and production chains. Production planners know the difference between anticipating and simply reacting to production interruptions caused by such events, in particular anticipating their consequences, and they also know the usefulness of simulating what-if scenarios. Having tools that can perform reliable predictive analysis is a valuable support. What-if analysis allows you to investigate the behavior of a data ecosystem, through the formulation of hypotheses and scenarios, the modification of parameters and the investigation of the performance of different forecasts.
Whatis what-if analytics
Predictive analysis systems provide useful guidance to companies with complex production and business processes, based on data collection and the projection of reliable scenarios in the medium and long term. What-if analysis is a type of survey that can make business management decisions more secure, effective and informed and is the first level of data-driven predictive analysis.
What-if analysis means the elaboration of different scenarios for the evaluation of the different possible outcomes. Unlike advanced predictive analytics, what-if analysis has the advantage of requiring little data to be processed.
Having the ability to simulate different what-if scenarios has been extremely beneficial in recent years. The production planners of companies equipped with tools that allow such simulations, in fact, were able to perform simulations of future production scenarios, based on demand and production forecasts and also taking into account certain constraints.
What-if scenarios allow leaders in the supply chain to see and analyze what events could occur and above all what consequences they could have. This allows companies to make decisions in a preventive manner to position their company in the best possible way. Asking questions such as “what if?” allows planners to identify both risks and opportunities associated with events that may hinder the production process.
Benefits of what-if analytics
What-if scenarios allow planners to accurately predict how hypothetical situations may affect the production and supply of materials. What-if analyses are useful for both short-term and long-term planning: the ability to evaluate different scenarios allows planners to visualize problems in the supply chain and make decisions quickly. Planners can then apply what-if scenarios to determine where to act and increase efforts in response to each scenario. Being able to assess multiple scenarios makes planning the best way to respond to the uncertainties of these times.
Best practices for implementing what-if analytics
The what-if analysis is very useful but to make the best use of it, it is good to keep in mind some aspects to be set and respected, in order to obtain the maximum benefits. For example, it is good to:
- Evaluate the business context
- Evaluate data and information on the specific phenomenon
- Define clear objectives and assumptions
- Involve the parties
- Monitor results
In addition, today it is possible to use advanced tools that, thanks to advanced algorithms and the computing power of databases in RAM, return effective analyses in a short time.
The tools to create what-if scenarios
Many companies are starting to approach what-if processes through the use of Excel spreadsheets. After days of building very complicated Excel files, planners realize that these tools are extremely limited, difficult to use, modify and that the output obtained through these tools is not reliable. In addition, the files cannot be edited simultaneously by several users and the results are not easily shared. For these reasons, after many attempts, they turn to Cybertec eager to evaluate and then obtain the CyberPlan solution, a tool used daily by manufacturing companies
What-if simulations to plan and schedule production
In fact, Cybertec solutions offer complete support for the rapid and effective creation of unlimited what-if scenarios related to planning and scheduling, which can also be saved and shared between different departments. Users have control over the entire supply chain with evidence of problems or possible future criticalities, with the possibility of evaluating the causes thanks to top-down or bottom-up analysis. With CyberPlan, managers have visibility into the entire supply chain and the impacts caused by market changes in real time, greatly amplifying their ability to react and make effective decisions. Planning or scheduling the production of the near future, evaluating alternatives and predicting events instead of suffering the consequences is what companies get thanks to CyberPlan.
Create effective scenarios and make the best decisions
Make the best decisions based on easy-to-create, easy-to-analyze scenarios built on secure data and processes. Equip your business with a powerful, remotely usable tool that gives your business visibility into what’s happening to the supply chain, from suppliers to delivery to the customer. Contact our experts for more information.