DISKOVER - Solutions for an agile, resilient, transparent and lasting supply chain

Many optimization decisions in logistics and supply chain management cannot be solved quickly and cost-effectively with static ERP systems and classic algorithms. 

As an add-on to existing IT solutions and data sources, DISKOVER solves tricky planning tasks and relieves the burden through automation.

Relying on better, reproducible results and facilitating decision-making... that's what DISKOVER is made for

Sales forecasting and demand forecasting with dynamic methods and AI for optimal delivery readiness and lower costs.

Relieve the burden on sales, SCM, logistics, purchasing and production while improving planning results and speeding up S&OP processes.

End-to-end supply chain visibility and fine-tunable scheduling to focus on relevant items, reduce user burdens, improve inventory and lower costs.

AI-assisted optimization algorithms enable higher throughput, improved on-time delivery, and increased productivity with optimal use of valuable resources and predictive workforce planning.

Automatic optimization and maintenance of any planning und control master data and parameters in the background enable economic and user independent planning and replenishment results.

Easy-to-use reporting and pivot functions as well as ready to use solutions for complex analyses render fast and accurate results that can be exported, mailed or distributed automatically.

Flexible standard interfaces

Low implementation effort for all common ERP solutions via automated data transfers and possibility of enrichment with data from any other source.

better planning made easy

UWE KAHR
HEAD OF INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
HAMA GMBH & CO KG

"Hama has been able to further improve planning efficiency, transparency and quality by using the flexible DISKOVER standard."

What makes the difference in forecasting and demand planning?

Automatic forecasts with integrated safety stock optimization

DISKOVER automatically optimizes statistical and AI-generated forecasts together with safety stocks by means of empirical simulation for each individual item. You can determine which optimization targets are important for you, e.g. required delivery readiness with lowest inventory.

Precise Demand Forecasting

DISKOVER privides powerful  forecasts, optimized via empirical simulation and based on statistical methods and neural networks (AI), which are also effective for irregular demands and service levels above 95 %. Thanks to automatic outlier correction, separate seasonal and trend analysis and distribution-free procedures, even high service levels can be safeguarded. Special stochastic forecasting methods improve the forecasts of articles with irregular, heavily fluctuating requirements.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because....

... the level of inventory that  your supply chain requires depends decisively on the quality of your market or demand forecasts.

Realistic Sales Forecasting

With DISKOVER, statistical and AI forecasts can be reconciled with sales planning. In addition, the sales force can easily and conveniently be integrated into the forecasting process.

Of course, forecasts in DISKOVER can be created and displayed not only at article level, but also at article|region or article|sales channel level. Each sales person receives the forecast values for her or his area of responsibility. The forecast values can be grouped and aggregated "on the fly" at any number of levels and corrected at any level. Historical and future adjustments of sales prices are taken into account.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... the more irregular the demand for an item, the more important it is that sales be involved in the forecasting process. Also, promotions and/or projects cannot normally be forecast purely statistically.

End-of-Life Forecasting

For forecasting of new products, residual demand forecasting of discontinued products, demand forecasting of spare parts, and end-of-life demand determination for discontinued electronic components, DISKOVER provides special forecasting mechanisms, including predecessor-successor relationships, structural break analyses, start-up and phase-out curves, or discontinuation analyses across the entire supply chain.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

...if up to one third of all articles are newly developed each year and numerous articles are withdrawn from the market, the success of the entire planning depends decisively on the forecast quality for newly starting and discontinued articles.

DIETMAR HENKLER
HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
SEEPEX GMBH

"When we launched DISKOVER, we initially only tested individual article groups to see whether the forecasts met our needs. After a few weeks, however, it quickly became clear that the results were excellent."

Do you want to improve the quality of forecasting?

Let's talk together or drop us a note

DE +49 2407 9565-70

What makes the difference in replenishment and production control?

Good scheduling decisions require years of experience or a great system - preferably both, of course. This is where DISKOVER comes into play.

Not all planners are equally experienced or planners have to supervise so many articles that they do not have time to use their experience. DISKOVER stores planning and replenishment rules in a differentiated way and optimizes these rules via empirical simulation, so that you can contribute your planning know-how and arrive at reproducible and transparent decisions.

Transparent Order Proposals

DISKOVER allows a far more differentiated planning than practically all ERP solutions, nevertheless the operation remains simple and transparent and results are visualized graphically.

In addition to the classic MRP procedures, DISKOVER provides an efficient MRP procedure with dynamic range-based replenishment, which enables significantly reduced average stocks, especially for articles with long replenishment times. Of course, demand-driven MRP (DDMRP) is also available.

Many other functions enable differentiated and automated decisions, e.g. full truck load and setup campaign-oriented production through composite scheduling, automatic consideration of supplier holidays, empirically optimized economic lot-sizing procedures, dynamic safety stocks and reorder points, automatic and configurable rescheduling proposals or ATP requests.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... planning and scheduling represent the heart of the company and only a healthy, efficient heart pumps the flow of goods successfully through the value chain.

Simulation

Simulation is a core function of DISKOVER.

Based on real empirical data, it determines the economic effects of, for example, changed master data settings with regard to stock, product availability, warehousing and ordering costs, goods receipts and goods issues.

The logistical and economic effects of your control settings are also determined using the simulation function.

The simulation capabilities go even further. DISKOVER can independently and automatically select between alternative parameter settings and learns on the basis of empirical data.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... economic supply chains and logistical performance are central competitive factors today. The simulation possibilities of DISKOVER let you stand out from the competition.

Rule Set Engine

Whether you plan with your ERP system or directly with DISKOVER, the ruleset function of DISKOVER allows to define for any business object cascades of rulesets consisting of cascades of decision tables. This way you keep all planning and control parameters in DISKOVER or in your ERP system automatically up-to-date, according to the changed individual item situation.

DISKOVER exploits the extensive historical and operational data pool of your ERP system to continuously improve the rule sets by means of empirical simulation.

Use DISKOVER as CNC control of your ERP system to effectively and efficiently optimize and automate your planning and scheduling processes!

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... the entire success of the planning processes is determined by correct planning parameters. Therefore, it is indispensable to continuously update these parameters. The daily business leaves no time for maintaining parameters, and the dynamic interaction of requirements, forecasts, scheduling decisions and value flows is too complex to grasp and manually adjust without tools.

Automation

The automation of materials planning requires reliable planning values, order dates and quantities.

To achieve this, simulation, rule sets and AI-supported optimisation work tightly together with the forecasting and scheduling functions.

Even such a sophisticated automation system can sometimes make decisions that subsequently turn out to be clumsy. However, numerous tests have repeatedly shown that the system corrects itself and returns to normal more quickly than humans can.

In order for users to gain confidence in the automation capabilities of DISKOVER, it is possible to specify which items are to be automated to what extent and with which automation buffer articles are to be run. In the early warning cockpit, users can monitor the entire process.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... humans are too precious for planning and control decisions that can be automated. The productivity of our companies depends on the efficient digitization and automation of desk work.

Early Warning Cockpit

DISKOVER aims at "Management by Exception". The early warning cockpit indicates the need for action, which can then be processed systematically.

The entire planning and scheduling process can be monitored via self-configurable alerts, to-dos and a self-configurable KPI carousel in a way that meets the requirements of each user.

The Early Warning Cockpit takes users out of the coal bunker of scheduling and puts them in the helmsman's seat on the navigation bridge.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... cost-effective planning is only possible if planners control a large number of articles of which many can be planned automatically so that planners can concentrate on articles requiring human action. Humans are too precious for decisions that can be automated!

Resilient Targets

In order to achieve the targeted overall delivery capability of a complete product portfolio with the lowest possible safety stock levels, the AI-supported Service Level Optimizer in DISKOVER calculates the optimal delivery service level for each field of a product portfolio.

For all items, DISKOVER uses empirical simulation to determine the achievable target values for inventories and service levels. Users can see whether an item is planned too high or too low and whether the targeted service level can be achieved. In this way, inventories and product availability can be monitored conveniently and systematically.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... realistic targets are crucial for reliable corporate planning. Only with realistic targets acceptance among users can be achieved, and only on the basis of accepted targets can continuous improvement processes be established.

MARINA WENIGER
HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
OASE GMBH

"The sets of rules for the MRP parameters and various stocking strategies also map the expert knowledge and experience of the planners and controllers. As a result, the planning and scheduling result is reproducible and comprehensible for us at all times."

Do you want to optimize replenishment and scheduling?

Let's talk together or drop us a note

DE +49 2407 9565-70

What makes the difference in Sales & Operations Planning?

Capacities are tight, suppliers are not able to deliver, market demand is erratic, delivery schedules from customers are incomplete... the list of risks in the supply chain is long. 

In such a situation it is important to align the demand side and the supply side as well as possible in order to ensure the required delivery capability  with the lowest possible inventories and low capital tie-up. The S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning) function in DISKOVER is your central instrument to map the S&OP process efficiently. Particularly important here: Keeping the workload for all company functions involved as low as possible.

Sales Channels and Regions

DISKOVER splits physical items into any sales items, representing sales channels, key accounts or regions.

Different sales items can have different master data, e.g. sales prices.

A planning workflow ensures that planning stages, e.g. from key account manager to regional manager to director, run consistently and promptly one after the other.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible , because...

... each sales person must be able to see and edit exactly her or his sales fugures with as little effort as possible. Otherwise, the planning burden for the sales department will be to high and the quality of the results will decrease.

Full Planning Calculation

DISKOVER supports the complete S&OP process from the automatic determination of statistical and AI-supported forecasts as initial values for S&OP planning, to an independent MRP calculation and a capacity and material requirements simulation.

Frozen planning horizons, in which no adjustments may be made, can be defined.

Using delta planning, the sales department can save a massive amount of planning effort.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... an S&OP process must run seamlessly on the software side so that planned values are available quickly and consistently.

Manual shoveling of data costs valuable time and carries a high potential for errors. Planning errors in the S&OP process scale through the entire value chain.

Any Viewing Levels

Sales products and physical items can be structured "on the fly" in any hierarchy levels and according to any criteria.

Sales data can be adjusted at any level of the hierarchy and is aggregated upwards and disaggregated downwards.

During planning, the hierarchies can be dissolved and re-formed as desired.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... In order to achieve a high level of planning quality, the sales department must be able to assess the sales market from different perspectives.

Project & Promotion Planning

Projects, object business and promotions can be planned separately from day-to-day business in DISKOVER.

An availability check at the push of a button shows directly whether the material quantities can be provided on the requirement dates.

Prepared promotions and projects can be activated with one click and thus be transferred to the operative planning in DISKOVER or in the ERP system.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... careful planning must be able to differentiate neatly between day-to-day business, project and object business, and promotional business.

Money and Quantity

Planned values can be displayed in local currency, in corporate currency or as quantity in basic units of measure (pieces, weight, volume, etc.).

Historical sales take into account historical price changes and future planned price adjustments are taken into account when planning future sales

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... target figures must be provided to sales in the dimension in which they think.

Open to all Data Sources

DISKOVER can import data  automatically into the S&OP planning from any source, such as ERP systems and CRM systems and in any format, e.g. databases, spreadsheets, csv or txt files.

Planed values and other data can be exported in different formats or mailed automatically.

Planed values can also be transmitted to DISKOVER via email and processed automatically.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... often not all data required in an S&OP process is available in the ERP system, yet must still be taken into account. Since spreadsheets are an important and unavoidable tool in sales as well as planning, users must be able to integrate them into the overall process as easily as possible.

JOSÉ GARCIA
HEAD OF PLANNING
GUST. ALBERTS. GMBH & CO. KG

"For GAH as a DIY market supplier, high service level is the be-all and end-all. Thanks to DISKOVER, we are still able to keep our inventories low. The Sales & Operations Planning functions help our sales department to create its demand forecast efficiently and conveniently and the capacity scheduling of DISKOVER shows us capacity bottlenecks in time. DISKOVER is exactly the right add-on tool for our SAP software system."

You would like to establish Sales & Operations Planning?

Let's talk together or drop us a note

DE +49 2407 9565-70

What makes the difference in detailed production planning?

If production capacities are scarce and the available capacity can only be adjusted to the demand to a limited extent, if different goals in production work against each other and have to be directed to an economic optimum, the detailed planning module PP-DS of DISKOVER helps.

Target variables such as productivity, on-time delivery and throughput can be improved with the PP-DS module, taking into account restrictions such as limited capacities of staff and machines, set-up effort, tool availability, etc.. High transparency and reproducibility facilitate decisions in critical situations.

Efficiency with AI

Detailed production planning uses the optimizer engine of DISKOVER, which works with heuristics and metaheuristics from the field of artificial intelligence.

This allows for high optimization quality with very short runtimes and can also cope with less precise data. The implementation effort for the detailed planning function can therefore be significantly reduced..

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... a detailed planning function must work quickly and efficiently without placing unrealistic demands on data quality.

Holistic Optimization

In detailed planning, material availability and resource availability (e.g. production capacities) are considered in an integrated manner. The availabilities of any resources can be defined via resource calendars. During planning, availabilities can be adjusted by click, e.g.: to extend or add production shifts.

In addition to the current resource allocation, numerous other parameters are taken into account during planning, such as split sizes, transfer quantities, cost parameters or cycle times.

Based on the existing restrictions, DISKOVER strives for the overall optimum of productivity, on-time delivery and throughput, whereby further target criteria, such as lead time and setup effort, can be added.

The weighting of the optimization target variables can also be adjusted.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... detailed planning must take into account all essential restrictions in order to deliver realistic and feasible results. Nevertheless, people must be able to react to an overload situation by simply adjusting the available capacity and changing priorities.

Transparency and Flexibility

The optimization results are visualized in color in a GANTT chart. Detailed information on work steps, production orders and the planning mesh is displayed via  tool tips and in info windows.

Users can intervene in the planning result by specifying priorities and desired start times or by manually shifting operations. In a new planning run DISKOVER follows the specifications if they are feasible.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... the best detailed planning algorithms cannot replace the expertise of an experienced planner. Users must therefore be able to adapt optimization specifications.

SOPHIA STRATHMANN
PROJECT MANAGER
Staatl. PORZELLANMANUFAKTUR MEISSEN

"By using the DISKOVER software, we were able to halve the lead times in our production. It offers us a set of rules on Industry 4.0 level, with which we can schedule even our batch size 1 products with continuously optimized parameters."

You want to simplify detailed production planning?

Let's talk together or drop us a note

DE +49 2407 9565-70

What makes the difference in optimizing planning parameters?

DISKOVER maintains the data quality of the planning parameters in your ERP-system automatically and thus provides the lasting foundations for effective and efficient planning - a challenge that cannot be mastered by your planners without special system support.

DISKOVER's Rule Set Engine represents the "CNC-system" of your ERP solution. Any planning parameters and master data are automatically optimized and updated in the background. Economic and user-independent lasting planning results as well as automatic planning are made possible.

Reproducible Results

The Rule Set Engine in DISKOVER applies rule sets and decision tables to control under which circumstances which values of planning and scheduling parameters should be set, thereby automating the maintenance of planning and control parameters.

Rule sets can be set up for any business objects and users can create their own formulas.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... the workload for proper maintenance of the planning and control parameters is too large to be managed in addition to the day-to-day business.

However, reproducible, user-independent planning and scheduling results are essential for a clean planning process.

Self Learning System

The effectiveness and efficiency of entire rule sets are checked and optimized via empirical simulation. Selected planning and control algorithms and parameters can also be optimized automatically.

In this way, the Rule Set Engine in DISKOVER learns to adapt to changing situations.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... the orchestration of requirements, forecasts, scheduling decisions and value flows within the company and throughout the entire supply chain is so complex to be mastered with common sense alone.

Without rule sets and planning settings verified by simulation with empirical data, economic planning cannot be achieved.

DNA of your SCM Strategy

Using rulesets and decision tables, you can map your planning and supply chain strategy in a differentiated manner and simulatively check and optimize it with regard to plausibility and profitability.

Rules can be effortlessly differentiated for different plants and locations. The era of one "template" for all plants is finally over.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... ERP and APS solutions must improve the efficiency of the value chain and therefore be individually adapted to the requirements of individual plants. However, this is only possible if the required IT effort is reduced.

CHRISTIAN-HANS BÃœLTEMEIER
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HANSA-FLEX AG

"Today, no one at HANSA-FLEX has to process requisitions or maintain master data. Replenishment now rolls in automatically as if by magic. The availability of the articles is now much better than before. In the meantime, DISKOVER is used to control more than 400 branches at home and abroad."

You would like to boost scheduling parameters?

Let's talk together or drop us a note

DE +49 2407 9565-70

What makes the difference in Ad Hoc Analysis & Reporting?

Tabular reports and quick pivot evaluations on KPI,  article master data or other business objects are indispensable in everyday business. DISKOVER lets you to create reports and pivot analyses with just a few clicks and practically without the need for training.

Define reports, export to MS-Excel©, send reports automatically by mail or store them in your file system, sort and group report data and aggregate values for data groups.

Comfortable Analysis

DISKOVER provides many prepared reports and pivot tables. New reports and pivot tables can be created for each business object in DISKOVER (item master data, sales orders, production orders,...) using a software wizard.

Report data can be grouped by any criteria and quantitative values can be aggregated.

Data filters, table and report layouts can be saved and reused in other reports and tables.

Pivot tables can be broken down by any criteria and custom key figures can be calculated with a formula editor.

In reports and pivot tables, it is possible to drill down directly to the forecast or MRP view of the individual item.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... performing ad hoc analyses and creating reports must be fun and easy, otherwise they will not be used and information will be lost.

E-Mail Trigger and more

In DISKOVER, triggers can be used to automate the regular, scheduled dispatch of a report or a pivot table to any mailing list.

Reports can also be exported in various formats, sent or saved directly, and they can be shared for use by other users.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

... efficient reporting on the data and information available in DISKOVER as well as ad hoc analyses should be done directly in the system and should not require the intermediate step of special data analysis software.

Alerts and Charts

Users can configure their own alerts in DISKOVER and display them in their early warning cockpit. Likewise, a user-configurable pivot chart can be used to create and display a user-defined KPI dashboard in the early warning cockpit.

Alerts and charts can also be provided centrally, either as a supplement or as an alternative, to provide a unified early warning cockpit for all users.

We will be happy to show you in a personal demo what else is possible, because...

...depending on the product range, task and personal working style, users require different information and instructions.

stefan bruch
senior product MANAGEr
sihl GMBH

"DISKOVER provides in a very comprehensive way a top complement for ERP systems that are limited in some points. Especially the option of specific queries and their downloads are a valuable contribution for the daily work and control of the black box an ERP system can be."

You want to speed up SCM reporting?

Let's talk together or drop us a note

DE +49 2407 9565-70

How we are changing corporate decision making

In an agile team with extensive experience in R&D, software development and professional supply chain management we realize one of the most flexible, modern and powerful solutions in the field of advanced planning & scheduling software: DISKOVER SCO 

Our roots

As a subsidiary of the supply chain management specialists of the Abels & Kemmner Group we rely on more than 25 years of experience in optimizing logistics and supply chain management. 

Algorithms & Artificial Intelligence

In the Joint Supply Chain Optimization Laboratory together with Abels & Kemmner, and in an extensive network of practitioners as well as university and industry researchers, we are continuously working on new, comprehensive solutions for your logistics success.

DISKOVER Installationen weltweit

Global understanding and cultures

DISKOVER makes a decisive contribution to the economic optimization of the supply chain management of locally and globally operating companies in over 40 countries worldwide:

  • High service level and product availability
  • Optimized inventory management
  • Improved value streams
  • Lean and efficient processes
  • Reliable master data in the ERP system
  • High transparency