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Demand & Supply Planning Overview

Synplex separates planning into two distinct but tightly connected systems: demand planning and supply planning. Understanding how they relate to each other is the foundation for using both effectively.

Within supply planning there are two separate components that serve different purposes:

  • Operational replenishment planning — live today. Runs every night and keeps your reorder dates, recommended quantities, stock assessments, and coverage dates fresh for every variant at every location.
  • Strategic supply planning — in development. A forward-looking 12-month simulation that will show projected stock levels and recommended order timing across your entire catalogue.

The Two Systems​

Demand Planning​

Demand planning answers: how many units do we expect to sell, per product variant, per location, per month?

Each month-level forecast for a specific variant at a specific location is called a demand plan. Demand plans are the single source of truth for expected future sales across the entire app. Every downstream calculation — replenishment recommendations, stock projections, BOM component requirements — is derived from them.

Demand plans have two quantities that are always visible:

  • Forecasted quantity — the quantity predicted automatically by Synplex. This is generated by the forecasting engine and updated monthly. It is read-only and cannot be changed.
  • Planned quantity — the quantity that is actually used in all calculations. By default this equals the forecasted quantity. When a user manually overrides a month, the planned quantity reflects the override while the original forecast remains visible for comparison.

Supply Planning​

Supply planning answers: given current stock, confirmed inbound inventory, and the demand plan, what should we order and when?

Synplex approaches this in two separate, complementary ways.

Operational Replenishment Planning ✅ Live​

The operational replenishment pipeline runs every night for every active variant at every location. It powers the day-to-day inventory management features you use today:

  • Reorder date — the date by which you need to place an order to avoid a stockout, accounting for your lead time and stock buffer settings
  • Recommended order quantity — how many units to order to reach your target days of inventory coverage
  • Coverage date — the date your current stock (plus confirmed inbound) will run out
  • Stock assessment — the status label on each inventory level: Healthy, Low Stock, Out of Stock, Overstock, or Dead Stock
  • Stockout date — the projected date stock reaches zero if nothing is ordered
  • Incoming stock — the total confirmed inbound quantity from purchase orders and transfer orders combined

These figures are what power the Inventory Table, the reorder alerts, and the Add to PO / Add to Transfer workflows. They update automatically every night — no action is needed on your part.

Strategic Supply Planning ⚠️ In Development​

The strategic supply plan is a separate, forward-looking component that will be available soon. Rather than updating every night, it recalculates on demand whenever a planning decision changes — a demand plan override, a confirmed PO, or a completed transfer.

When available, the Supply Plan page will show you:

  • Projected stock levels month by month for the next 12 months, per variant per location
  • Recommended order quantities and suggested timing across the full planning horizon
  • Which variants are at risk of a stockout within the next 12 months
  • Suggested procurement actions — purchase order, transfer, or production order — based on each variant's configured procurement strategy

How the Two Systems Connect​

The relationship is strictly one-directional: Sales history ↓ Demand plans ← User overrides (optional) ↓ ↓ Operational replenishment Strategic supply plan (runs every night) (event-driven, in development) ↓ ↓ Reorder dates, 12-month projected stock recommended quantities, levels & recommended stock assessments order timing

Changing a demand plan always triggers an automatic recalculation of the corresponding supply plan. The reverse is not true — supply plans have no effect on demand plans.

What Updates Automatically​

EventWhat recalculates
Every nightReorder dates, recommended order quantities, coverage dates, stock assessments, and incoming stock for all active variants and locations
Monthly forecast run (1st of each month)All demand plans for all active variants and locations
User saves a manual overrideThat variant's strategic supply plan for the affected location
A BOM parent variant's planned quantity changesDemand plans for all component variants at that location
A PO or transfer is confirmed or completedStrategic supply plans for all affected inventory levels

Nothing in either system requires manual refresh. Changes propagate in the background automatically after each triggering event.

The Planning Horizon​

The two systems operate on different horizons:

  • Operational replenishment works on a rolling daily basis. Reorder dates and coverage dates are calculated up to 365 days forward from today, but the focus is on near-term action — what to order now and when.
  • Strategic supply plans will cover a rolling 12-month window, dropping past months automatically as time moves on.
  • Demand plans are generated for 13 months forward from the current month and feed both systems.
  • Historical actual sales are visible alongside forecasts for context but are never modified by the planning systems.

Location Granularity​

Both systems operate at the inventory level — a specific variant at a specific location. This means:

  • A product variant sold across three locations has three independent demand plans, three independent sets of replenishment metrics, and three independent supply plans, one per location.
  • Aggregated views (all locations combined) are available in the UI for browsing, but editing always requires selecting a specific location.

BOM Products​

If a product variant is configured as an assemble-to-order BOM kit, its demand plan drives the demand plans of its component variants automatically. When the planned quantity of the parent changes, Synplex calculates how many units of each component are required and updates those components' demand plans at the same location and month. This cascades through to their replenishment metrics and supply plans as well.

See the Bundles & BOMs section for full details on configuring BOM products.

Questions? Contact support@synplex.dev