Program-Based Business for OEM program and component forecasting
Key Takeaway
Program Based Business derives a supplier's component production forecasts from a customer's (OEM's) program and variant forecasts. Product Related Material records link the supplier's components to the customer's products, so component forecasts can be derived from the variant forecasts.
Program Based Business is the part of Agentforce Manufacturing that lets a supplier build its own forecasts from its customer's forecasts. For example, a company that makes seat frames for a truck maker, which is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), can derive its seat frame forecast from the truck maker's forecasts. The supplier imports the customer's program and variant forecasts and generates forecasts for the components it makes. The supplier can then turn those forecasts into opportunities and, after the deal is won, into run-rate business tracked with sales agreements.
What Program Based Business does
Suppliers need their customers' forecasts to plan their own. Program Based Business uses a program-based model to give suppliers full visibility into their book of business.
Program managers run the whole lifecycle in three stages:
- Derive forecasts from customer forecasts.
- Turn those forecasts into business opportunities.
- Convert those opportunities into run-rate business.
The program-based model is common in process, aerospace, defense, automotive, engineer-to-order, and make-to-order businesses.
Lena is a program manager at a company that makes hydraulic pumps for a tractor maker. The tractor maker shares its forecasts for a new tractor line. Lena derives her pump forecasts from those numbers. When the forecasts are final, she turns them into an opportunity. After the tractor maker signs, the deal becomes run-rate business that her team tracks with a sales agreement.