American Paper Maker buys new forecasting solution

Filed in archive News on August 8, 2008

I worked for quite sometime in the paper industry; it's a tough sector; It has been suffering for a long-time for more than ten years from overcapacity and the effect of internet has also reduced the paper consumption.

In such an environment, companies are focusing more than ever on increasing process efficiency and that's why It wasn't a surprise for me when recently Sappi Fine Paper North America, announced that it has purchased Smart Software's flagship product, SmartForecasts Enterprise.

Sappi, which makes coated fine and specialty papers, has integrated SmartForecasts with the company's SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to help optimize inventory controls, including the accurate estimation of safety stock, cycle stock and inventory reorder points, and also to increase its ability to react to changes in product demand.

According to SDCE, Sappi said it recognized the need to replace its more time-consuming inventory planning system with a solution that could respond to changes in the marketplace faster and more frequently. Sappi selected SmartForecasts because of its ability to fit easily into the company's consensus planning process and to quickly import and analyze demand data stored in Sappi's SAP system. These data are used to generate safety stock and inventory stocking recommendations that are critical inputs to the company's inventory control system.

Hopefully, Sappi can reduce the number of its supply chain problems with Smart Software's solution a little bit.