The Enhanced Planning Pack app from Insight Works unifies forecasting, inventory management, and production planning into a single, user-friendly platform for businesses using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. This solution enhances operational efficiency with a robust set of apps: Enhanced Planning Worksheet, Item Planning Review, Enhanced Forecasting Worksheet, Multi-Level BOM Viewer, Routing Analysis, and Production Order Analysis.

Supercharge Business Central with a set of apps to optimize your processes and give you more visibility into forecasts and operations. These features deliver advanced forecasting, inventory management, and production planning capabilities, enabling organizations to streamline workflows and make data-driven decisions.

Let’s explore the top six features of the Enhanced Planning Pack and how they help streamline operations in Business Central.

1. Enhanced Planning Worksheet

The Enhanced Planning Worksheet is the cornerstone of advanced forecasting in the Enhanced Planning Pack. Key features include:

• Extended Forecasting: Generates actionable forecasts for specific items, categories, or locations based on historical sales data.

• Integration with Cortana Machine Learning: This feature leverages Microsoft’s AI technology to process sales history data, ensuring accurate and efficient demand predictions.

• Demand Forecast Updates: Allows real-time updates to demand forecasts, integrating seamlessly with Material Requirements Planning (MRP).

• Calculated Inventory Management Values: Automates calculations for safety stock, reorder points, maximum inventory, and reorder quantities, ensuring optimal inventory levels.

• Update Item Planning: Enables businesses to adjust item planning parameters directly on item cards for improved accuracy and flexibility.

These capabilities provide the foundation for precise forecasting and inventory planning.

2. Item Planning Review

Item Planning Review optimizes inventory visibility and supply chain management with the following features:

• Supply and Demand Summary: Offers a consolidated view of inventory plans, highlighting net results for supply and demand.

• Visibility Across Locations: Provides insights into inventory levels across multiple locations and companies for better decision-making.

• Vendor Planning Summary: Tracks planned spending with vendors and ensures compliance with minimum prepaid amounts.

• Visualization of History: Displays sales and purchase trends through visual charts for more straightforward analysis.

• Detailed History Tab: Offers a thorough, tabular view of sales and purchase data for in-depth understanding.

Item Planning Review ensures businesses have the insights to manage inventory effectively and strengthen vendor relationships.

3. Enhanced Forecasting Worksheet

The Enhanced Forecasting Worksheet provides businesses with flexible planning tools, even without generating a complete forecast. Key features include:

• Time Period Selection: Enables targeted review of specific timeframes to focus on critical periods.

• Filtering Options: Provides customizable filters to refine data for specific requirements.

• Data Generation: Generates usage data for selected periods, offering precise insights into trends.

• Data Display: Displays average usage data in a user-friendly format for quick analysis.

This worksheet is ideal for businesses adapting their planning processes to specific operational needs.

4. Multi-Level BOM Viewer​

The Multi-Level BOM Viewer simplifies the management of complex manufacturing hierarchies with features like:

• BOM Analysis: Provides a hierarchical view of materials required for production.

• Supply-Demand Information: Identifies potential shortages and assesses production feasibility.

• Costing: Calculates BOM costs and enables data export for further analysis.

• Editing Capabilities: Enables users to change BOM structures and item statuses directly within the tool.

With these functionalities, the Multi-Level BOM Viewer makes planning production efficient and prevents material shortages easier.

5. Routing Analysis

Routing Analysis focuses on improving production workflows by providing actionable insights into shop floor operations. Key features include:

• Comparison of Actual and Expected Times: Highlights deviations between planned and actual runtimes, identifying inefficiencies.

• Integration with Shop Floor Insight: Provides a comprehensive analysis of production routing to ensure optimal performance.

• Production Order Analysis: Reviews all production orders that use specific routings for a broader perspective.

• Outlier Identification: Pinpoints significant discrepancies to enhance costing and scheduling accuracy.

Routing Analysis is essential for streamlining production processes and ensuring operational consistency.

6. Production Order Analysis

The Production Order Analysis feature provides unparalleled visibility into your production workflows, enabling you to monitor and optimize production processes precisely. Key features include:

• Comprehensive Production Order Review: Analyze all production orders that use specific routings to identify patterns and gain a holistic understanding of operational performance.

• Bottleneck Identification: Pinpoint areas where production slows down, allowing proactive resolution of inefficiencies.

• Cost and Scheduling Optimization: Evaluate production orders’ cost and time performance to ensure alignment with operational goals and budgets.

• Integration with Routing Analysis: Seamlessly integrates with Routing Analysis to provide end-to-end insights into production workflows, from initial routing plans to actual execution.

By offering actionable insights into production orders, the Production Order Analysis ensures manufacturers refine processes, reduce costs, and meet production targets more efficiently.

Optimize Your Operations with the Enhanced Planning Pack

The Enhanced Planning Pack provides businesses using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with the tools to elevate their forecasting, inventory, and production planning capabilities. By leveraging the app’s advanced features, businesses achieve smoother workflows, better resource utilization, and improved decision-making.

Whether you’re a supply chain analyst, operations manager, or business owner, the Enhanced Planning Pack is your key to unlocking greater efficiency.