AI for supply chain planning
Ultramarine Work reads the ERP exports and Excel workbooks you already keep. It rebuilds the demand forecast, works MRP exceptions and recalculates safety stock. Nothing reaches the ERP or the S&OP pack before you have checked it.
MRP-exception-worklist.xlsxExampleMRP exceptions, Monday Nov 9 run
- RS-2210Reschedule in, Dec 4 to Nov 20SO 55102, Holloway FoodsFlagged
Nov 20 is inside the 15-day time fence, so confirm the supplier can ship before moving PO 88190.
- CP-4410Reschedule out, Nov 16 to Dec 7Forecast onlyReady
Move PO 88213 to Dec 7, since no firm order needs it before then.
- LB-0917Cancel 40,000 labelsNothing, ACD-410 retiredWaiting
The printer must confirm the run has not started, because printed labels cannot be returned.
- FG-ACD400New planned order, 4,800 casesJanuary promotionReady
Firm the order for the week of Dec 14, which fits Line 2’s open capacity.
How it works
- 1
Load the planning folder
Drop the files in as they are: sales history by SKU and week, the item master, open purchase orders, stock and requirements exports from your ERP, the promotion calendar, standard costs and last cycle’s accuracy report.
- 2
Say what you need
Ask for a rebuilt baseline, recalculated safety stocks, a worked exception list or a reply draft for a price increase letter. It hands back Excel with live formulas or a Word draft, cites every figure and flags what it could not reconcile.
- 3
Check it, then decide
Match each worked exception against the lead times you trust and the customer priorities only sales knows, then accept, change or reject it. Ultramarine Work never touches the ERP, so you enter the changes and own the call.
Inside the Supply Chain Planning mode
Demand forecasting and planning
For the consensus review, it rebases the statistical baseline, sizes the promotion lift and reports accuracy and bias to your error definition.
Inventory policy and performance
It sets safety stock and reorder points by ABC/XYZ segment, and the inventory health review covers turns, days on hand and excess and obsolete dispositions.
Master and production scheduling
Tests the master schedule against rough-cut capacity and time fences, works MRP action messages by pegged demand, and allocates short supply across open orders.
Purchase orders and price variance
Runs a supplier price increase through the contract’s escalation clause and the index it cites, and splits purchase price variance by driver.
Inventory accuracy and shrink
Reconciles cycle counts and physical inventories to book, documents receiving discrepancies against PO and ASN, and drafts the OS&D report and debit memo.
Supply chain KPI scorecard
It builds OTIF, fill rate and turns scorecards to the definitions in your customer agreements, with the source behind every number.
Distribution network and cost-to-serve
Models network scenarios and cost-to-serve by customer, channel and DC, so landed cost and service are both visible before you commit to a footprint.
Business case and capital allocation
The case for a second source, a new line or a packaging machine is framed with NPV and payback worked through, ready for the capital committee.
Close variance and forecasting
It explains the material cost and inventory variances, rolls the forecast forward each cycle and drafts the monthly pack that finance reads.
- Office skills
- Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF
- Tools
- Read, edit and write files, Search files, Run code, Search and read the web, View images
- Connectors
- SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, and additional custom connectors
- House style
- Your fonts, layouts and rules, on every file
Ask it for
“Rebuild the statistical baseline for the ACD-400 line from 24 months of history, add the May promotion lift, and report WMAPE and bias by SKU.”
Baseline-ACD400-May.xlsx“Recalculate safety stock and reorder points for the AX items at a 98% service level and the CZ items at 90%, using the new 12-day supplier lead time.”
Safety-stock-repoints.xlsx“Work the MRP exception export from this morning: rank the reschedule-in messages by the demand they peg and flag anything inside the planning time fence.”
MRP-exception-worklist.xlsx“Test the resin supplier’s 5% increase against the escalation clause and the index it cites, applied to the resin share only, and draft our written response.”
Resin-price-response.docx“Build the Q2 customer OTIF scorecard, on time within the promised window and in full at case level, with each miss listed by customer.”
Customer-OTIF-Q2.xlsx“Run the excess review. Show coverage against target by SKU, list the items with no movement in a year and propose a disposition for each line.”
Excess-review-June.xlsx
Who it’s for
People who forecast demand and plan supply, production and inventory, from forecast analysts and buyer-planners to supply chain directors.
Questions
Will it work from our own spreadsheets and metric definitions?
Yes, once those files are in the folder. It follows the conventions of your own workbooks, from tab layout to sign-off blocks, and computes metrics the way you define them, whether OTIF counts in-full at case level or bias runs positive for over-forecasting.
Will it invent lead times or make up contract terms?
No, it will not put a number on the page without a source. Every figure traces back to the file it came from, and it says what it could not find instead of guessing. A lead time missing from the item master comes back flagged for you to fill in, not dressed up. You review every file it touched before any letter goes out to a supplier.
Where does our data go?
Ultramarine Work changes files only in the project’s folder. When a request needs it, it can read files elsewhere on your computer, never passwords, keys or app data, and you can turn that off in settings. The model runs on Paper Instruments’ servers, so the content it works on is sent there to be processed. Paper Instruments is SOC 2 Type II, and our security and compliance details are on our compliance page.
Do we need to fix our master data before the forecasts are any good?
Yes, the worst of it needs fixing, because duplicated SKUs and guessed lead times corrupt any baseline. Ultramarine Work does not correct the item master. Where history is missing or a number looks like a placeholder, it reports the gap rather than fill it, and the notes tell you which item master fields to fix. The cleanup itself stays with you.
Who decides safety stock levels and shortage allocations?
You do, within the rules your company sets. Ultramarine Work calculates the buffers, ranks the exceptions and drafts the allocation across orders. The planner signs off, because the tradeoff between service, cash and a customer at risk is the judgment planners are paid to make.