3 questions from the package
From the RFI round. The first shows part of the guide each question carries; the workbook adds follow-ups, how to verify the answer, a priority and a weight.
1. How does the product represent forecast uncertainty for each item-location-period?
Why it matters. If the product only produces a single point value, planners cannot see the range of likely outcomes. Downstream inventory and scenario planning then have no measured spread to work from.
Good answer
- Produces quantiles or a full distribution for each item-location-period, not only an aggregate error statistic
- Planners can see the uncertainty range in the standard planning view
- The same uncertainty output is stored and available to downstream planning modules without manual export
Red flags
- Uncertainty is shown only as a single error percentage at an aggregate level
- Confidence bands appear on a chart but are not stored as data
- Probabilistic output requires a separate data-science environment or custom scripting
2. Which constraint types does the supply planning engine enforce as hard limits in a constrained plan without custom development?
Why it matters. If the engine treats a constraint as a soft target or ignores it, the plan shows supply that the plant, supplier or warehouse cannot deliver. Planners then correct it by hand outside the system.
3. Describe how the product accounts for stock held at upstream locations when it sets safety-stock targets at downstream locations.
Why it matters. If each location's target is calculated independently, the same demand uncertainty is buffered at several echelons. Network inventory ends up higher than the service targets require.
Capability areas
Demand Planning & Sensing (12)
Statistical and probabilistic forecasting, short-term demand sensing from downstream signals, new-product and promotion forecasting, forecast hierarchies, and consensus demand overrides with accuracy tracking. Excludes inventory targets and supply response, which are covered in their own areas.
Supply & Constraint-Based Planning (12)
Supply planning against real capacity, materials, lead-time and sourcing-rule constraints, multi-level BOM explosion, alternate sources and routings, and production planning and scheduling hand-off. Excludes inventory policy setting and strategic network design.
Inventory Optimization (10)
Multi-echelon inventory optimization, safety-stock and service-level target setting, handling of demand and lead-time variability, and inventory policy segmentation. Excludes physical stock movements inside the warehouse.
S&OP / Integrated Business Planning Workflow (9)
The recurring planning cycle from demand review through supply review to executive sign-off, reconciliation of volume plans with financial plans, scenario comparison for decision meetings, and plan versioning. Excludes the calculation speed of the planning engine itself.
Scenario Modeling & Re-plan Speed (12)
Concurrent compared with sequential planning across demand, supply and inventory, what-if scenario creation and comparison, re-plan run time and feasibility at the buyer's data volume, and in-memory model size limits. Excludes long-horizon network design.
Warehouse Management (13)
Receiving, putaway, slotting, wave and waveless release, picking and packing, labor management, cycle counting, and interfaces to automation and robotics. Excludes transportation planning beyond the dock door.
Transportation Management (11)
Multi-modal rating, load building and route optimization, carrier tendering and contract management, dock scheduling, shipment tracking, and freight audit and payment. Excludes multi-tier supplier visibility not tied to shipments.
Order Management & Available-to-Promise (10)
Order capture and orchestration across fulfillment nodes, available-to-promise and capable-to-promise logic, allocation of constrained supply, and order-change handling. Excludes pricing and quoting.
Multi-Tier Network & Control Tower Visibility (11)
Supplier and logistics-partner collaboration on forecasts, commits and shipments, multi-tier visibility beyond direct suppliers, partner onboarding through EDI, portal or API, and control-tower views of in-transit and at-risk supply. Excludes generic API and connector capabilities covered by the integration module.
Data Foundation, Digital Twin & ERP Data Flow (12)
The supply chain data model, master-data quality and harmonization for items, BOMs, locations, lead times and sourcing rules, construction and upkeep of a network digital twin, lineage of planned numbers back to sources, and round-trip flow of plans and orders to and from the ERP. Also covers migration of planning models from a legacy planning system. Excludes generic connector and API questions.
Exception Management & Decision Automation (9)
Alert generation and prioritization, root-cause drill-down for supply chain exceptions, prescriptive recommendations, and automated or agent-driven resolution of planning and execution exceptions, including how production-proven each capability is. Excludes generic AI governance, safety and oversight controls covered by cross-cutting modules.
Strategic Network Design (9)
Modeling of plant, distribution center and inventory placement, flow and sourcing trade-offs across cost, service and emissions, and greenfield and footprint-change studies. Excludes day-to-day operational re-planning.
Questions about this package
How many Supply Chain Management (SCM) RFP questions are there?
130 solution questions in 12 capability areas: 27 for the RFI, 68 for the RFP and 35 deep-dive questions for the finalists. The workbook adds 70 due-diligence questions on security, integration, implementation and exit.
What comes with each question?
Why it matters, good-answer signals, red flags, follow-up questions, how to verify the answer (a demo step, a test or a document), and a suggested priority and weight for scoring.
Can I edit the questions?
Yes. The workbook is an ordinary Excel file. Change, add or remove questions, and change the weights; the scorecard recalculates.
Which license do I need?
The Enterprise License covers any number of evaluations inside one organization. The Consultancy License covers use with any number of clients. Neither allows reselling or republishing the questions.
