FICO® Supply Chain Solver, an Xpress Insight Solution

Increases speed and fitness with  a solution that fits your business not vice-versa: Saves time, from creating first model and running scenarios, to collaboration, to re-running scenarios, to deploying models into the hands of business users

• Ability to compare multiple scenarios quickly to zero in on the right solution
• From idea on a whiteboard to solution with a dashboard at the speed of business

Supports change management

• Create a strategic solution roadmap, with staged changes and projected operating benefits
• When your business changes, the solution adapts in hours/days, not monthly/yearly release cycles
• Gives your solution a voice

Reduces risk and uncertainty

• Run more scenarios faster
• Anticipate and plan for disruptions faster
• Understand tradeoffs between costs, profit and service

Flexible and Extensible

• Uses the power of optimization
• Integrate machine learning with human field expertise
• Built on the Xpress-Insight platform that enables you to connect with other apps e.g. Forecasting, Manufacturing Solver, your custom app
• Cloud enabled and secure to meet stringent IT requirements and expand compute power if needed

FICO Supply Chain Solver is a pre-configured solution that accelerates time to value. With a robust multi-period, multi-commodity multi-echelon network optimization model, complex networks can be modeled quickly and efficiently. With the ability to access the model itself, custom constraints and formulations are more readily accessible. Using the Xpress Insight View Designer, the user interface can be also be rapidly modified to improve usability and workflow needs. 

FICO Supply Chain Solver is built on the FICO Xpress Insight platform using FICO Xpress Mosel and FICO Xpress Solver. FICO Xpress Solver provides the widest breadth of industry leading optimization algorithms and technologies. FICO Xpress Mosel is a powerful modeling language for math models, custom heuristics, sub-model parallelization, R/Python in-memory integration, and much more.

FICO Supply Chain Solver is one of several Xpress Insight solutions. Complementary Xpress Insight solutions include FICO® Manufacturing Solver, FICO® Forecaster and FICO® Vehicle Routing Planner. Xpress Insight also provides the capability to “roll-your-own” custom apps on the Xpress Insight platform. All of this plus a rich set of REST APIs to enable more automation and/or integration between apps.

FICO Supply Chain Solver supports both strategic and tactical operating decisions, effectively combining network design and sales and operations planning (S&OP) business processes.  Specifically, it addresses the following decisions in a flexible framework to fit your business model:

• Network design decisions: How many facilities (suppliers/manufacturing plants/distribution centers/stores) are needed in your supply chain network.  What capabilities and capacities should they have.  Where/when should they be opened/closed.
• Production planning decisions: Where/when/how much  of each component/product should be produced.  When should you utilize alternative bills of materials to balance available inventory and operating cost.
• Inventory planning decisions: Given volatile and/or seasonal demand, where/when/how much of component and finished inventories should be held, and how often should they be replenished.
• Transportation decisions: Figure out which path to move your components and products from sources to destinations.
• Resource planning decisions: Where/when should resources be located (personnel/machines/vehicles, etc.) to manage risk, and achieve business objectives for multi-modal, multi-echelon manufacturing and distribution networks.
• Multi-Period: Time period modeling including transportation lead time and inventory considerations
• Production Modeling: Embed complex production models with Bill of Material recipes, production lines and steps
• Transportation Modeling: Create multiple modes, lanes and to model complex transportation costs
• Advanced Constraint Editor: Add advanced constraints without having to change the underlying model code. Ability to go to the model code level is an added capability if needed.
• Model Build Time: Model formulation and code has been optimized to reduce time to generate the model that is sent to the solver.
• Data Validation: Validation of input data with error logs for feedback.
• Infeasibility Diagnostics: Feedback on causes for model infeasibility e.g. missing flow paths.
• Business Visualization: Advanced Tableau based visuals with charts, tables and mapping.