Complexica Pty Ltd, a leading provider of Artificial Intelligence software for supply & demand optimization, announced today that it has signed a contract with PFD Food Services for the deployment of its Decision Cloud® software platform for automating and optimising demand planning and replenishment activities. Under the contract, PFD will deploy Complexica’s Decision Cloud® – powered by Complexica’s award-winning Artificial Intelligence engine, Larry, the Digital Analyst® – across its national operation to optimize the replenishment of tens of thousands of products across 70 warehouses. The deployment will allow PFD to replace its legacy Demand & Replenishment Planning system and extend its use of Complexica’s software and Artificial Intelligence engine across the business.
“PFD is Australia's largest privately-owned food services company, servicing a long tail of customers with an extensive product range, which results in an inherently complex operation,” said Richard Cohen, Chief Information Officer of PFD Food Services. “The deployment of Complexica’s Decision Cloud® for demand planning and replenishment optimization will allow us to improve our forecast accuracy, reduce stockouts and excess inventory, as well as reduce the manual effort involved in replenishing stock. We look forward to working with Complexica in this area, especially after our successful national rollout of Complexica’s CRM, Customer Opportunity Profiler (COP), and Order Management System (OMS) in 2019, which is now the core technology used by PFD’s in-field sales team for call planning, quoting & ordering, and managing customer interactions.”
PFD is Australia's largest privately-owned food services company, distributing food products and related consumables to restaurants, hotels, and commercial kitchens throughout the country. With more than 2400 employees, 70 strategically located warehouses, and annual turnover of approximately AUD $2.0 billion, PFD's distribution network services the entire Australian population. For more information about PFD, please visit: www.PFDFoods.com.au
“An ongoing challenge for any modern-day demand and replenishment planner is improving the accuracy of demand forecasts. Besides the algorithmic challenge of minimising the forecast error, there’s also the challenge of understanding and optimising the trade-off between working capital costs and service levels to customers,” said Matt Michalewicz, CEO of Complexica. “These challenges are particularly pronounced in food services, where products are perishable, limited by warehouse capacities, and influenced by a variety of external demand drivers. To address these challenges, Complexica’s Decision Cloud® is based on the latest algorithmic advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and will enable PFD to order the right stock, at the right place, at the right time. Given our long-standing relationship with PFD, we look forward to embarking on this project to drive business value and tangible outcomes for their national operation."
Based on advanced Artificial Intelligence methods such as Deep Learning, Complexica's Decision Cloud® can help move demand planning away from an anecdotal and “gut feel” approach, to a data-driven and market intelligence capability that can:
- Reduce the forecast error associated with demand planning
- Increase DIFOT and service levels to customers
- Improve stock turns and decrease overall inventory levels
- Improve reaction time and response to unexpected events (e.g. sudden change in demand requiring additional inventory)
- Automate manual processes to eliminate human error and key man risk
- Understand the impact of changes in business rules and constraints (such as lead times, capacity constraints, required inventory levels, etc.)
- Replace home-grown spreadsheets, which are often opaque and convoluted
Decision Cloud® can simplify and automate the manual processes associated with replenishment planning, as well as generate optimized buying recommendations across various time periods to reduce working capital requirements while maximizing service levels and fill rate.
