AI & digital transformation · manufacturing planning

Bring AI to your planning department.

We bring AI-assisted forecasting, digital twins, and modern ERP to the shop floor, helping small and mid-size manufacturers replace spreadsheet-and-gut-feel planning with a system that sees what's coming. Hold less, stock out less, put cash back to work.

Built for $5M–$150M manufacturersAI-assisted planningHost of The Planning Desk podcast
Service level vs. inventory
the right direction
today with a plan
▬ Service level ↑▬▬ Inventory ↓
AI & Digital Transformation

Modern planning, brought down to earth.

The tools the big plants use: AI forecasting, digital twins, and connected ERP, made practical and affordable for a mid-size manufacturer. Straight talk about what actually works, from someone who's implemented it on real floors.

AI-Assisted Forecasting

Machine-learning demand signals that adapt to seasonality, promotions, and new parts, instead of a static spreadsheet that's wrong the day you save it.

Digital Twins & Simulation

Model your plant before you commit. Test capacity, load, and what-if scenarios risk-free, so decisions are proven on screen before they hit the floor.

Paperless, Modern ERP

Move off whiteboards and spreadsheets to a connected ERP your whole team trusts, with the master data and setup done right. Epicor Kinetic and beyond.

Custom Planning Automation

Purpose-built AI agents and automation that kill the manual grind. Built for your process, not bought off a shelf and forced to fit.

Epicor Kinetic AI demand planning Digital twin modeling SIOP architecture SQL & BAQ Paperless ERP
3 SLOTS OPENFounding Client Program. The first three manufacturers get a reduced rate and become the case study everyone after them reads.
See the terms →
Sound familiar?

If your plan lives in a spreadsheet, you already feel this.

None of it means your team is doing anything wrong. It means you've outgrown the tools.

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Forecasts that can't keep up with seasonality, promotions, or new part numbers.

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Safety stock set once and never revisited, so you're overstocked and stocked out at the same time.

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Cash tied up in the wrong inventory while the hot parts run short.

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Critical planning knowledge living in one person's head.

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Tariffs and lead times swinging faster than a spreadsheet can react.

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Purchasing, production, and finance all working from different numbers.

What we do

Five ways to work with us. Start small, scale up.

Every engagement is fixed-scope and priced up front. No open-ended hourly meters, no surprises.

Tier 0 · The front door

Planning Diagnostic

from $8,500 · 2–3 weeks

A fast, fixed-scope read on your planning health: where cash is trapped, where service is at risk, and the quick wins worth chasing first.

  • Forecast & inventory health check
  • Prioritized roadmap
  • Fee credited toward your next project
Tier 1 · Most popular

Quick-Win Sprint

from $25,000 · 6–10 weeks

One high-ROI outcome, delivered end to end: forecasting set up, inventory policy redesigned, or the right planning software chosen and implemented.

  • Data cleanup & configuration
  • Planner enablement
  • Built to pay for itself in year one
Tier 2 · The full lift

Transformation Program

from $60,000 · phased

End-to-end S&OP process, full software rollout, ERP integration, AI forecasting, and team training, sequenced so the business keeps running.

  • SIOP design & AI-assisted forecasting
  • ERP & digital-twin implementation
  • KPI dashboards & training
Tier 3 · Ongoing

Fractional Planning Leadership

from $4,000 / month

A senior supply-chain planning leader on retainer, managing exceptions, running your reviews, and keeping the plan sharp between projects.

  • Managed planning & exceptions
  • Quarterly business reviews
  • Your fractional VP of Supply Chain
Add-on · Available with any tier

Custom Application Design

from $12,000 · 4-8 weeks

When no off-the-shelf tool fits, we build it. Scheduling boards, planning dashboards, and calculators built on your data and integrated with your ERP. AI-assisted development means a fraction of the cost of a traditional software project, shipped in weeks instead of quarters.

  • Working prototype in two weeks
  • Built by a planner, not a developer guessing
  • You own it outright, no per-seat licensing
See full service details →
How it works

A clear path from chaos to control.

The same four moves every time, so you always know what happens next.

01

Diagnose

We dig into your data and process to find where cash is trapped and service is exposed.

02

Prioritize

You get a ranked roadmap: biggest, fastest wins first, tied to real dollars.

03

Implement

We set up the tools, clean the data, and configure the policies alongside your team.

04

Run

We hand over a plan your team can own, or stay on to run it with you.

See the full process →
What good planning delivers

The numbers move in the right direction.

Illustrative of what modern planning typically unlocks for a mid-size manufacturer. We'll size the real opportunity in your diagnostic.

20–30%
of inventory value, saved

Typical annual carrying cost. Every dollar of excess you cut, you stop paying, and free the cash underneath it.

Weeks
to your first quick win

Not quarters. The Sprint model targets a measurable result inside the first engagement.

↑ & ↓
higher service, lower stock

Done right, planning raises fill rates and reduces inventory at the same time, not one at the expense of the other.

Free tools

Try our planning calculators.

Plug in your own numbers. Each tool shows what the result means and how to read it. No spreadsheet, no sign-up wall.

Open the calculators →

Carrying-Cost Calculator

What your inventory really costs to hold, and the cash trapped in excess.

Safety-Stock Calculator

The right buffer for your service target, without drowning in stock.

Forecast-Accuracy Scorecard

Grade your forecast against reality and spot the hidden bias.

The Manufacturing Planning Podcast

We've been saying this out loud for a year.

The Planning Desk podcast is where production planners, schedulers, and supply chain leaders get straight talk on planning. No vendor pitch, no hype. It is the same thinking we bring to client work, published in public.

8Episodes
50+Monthly listeners
2Industry guests
5.0★Apple Podcasts
Browse episodes → Ask the Desk
Latest · Season 1 · Episode 08

Where Quality Meets Planning: Lessons from Regulated Manufacturing

Guest Justin Straub on how quality and planning drive material flow in aerospace, defense, and medical manufacturing. Compliance, traceability, supplier qualification, and what every manufacturer can borrow from the industries that had to get it right first.

Listen now · Feat. Justin Straub
Available on all platforms
The Planning Desk Brief

Planning intelligence, every other week.

Lead-time trends, tariff and sourcing watch, inventory benchmarks, and one sharp planning tip, written for people who run the plan at a manufacturer. No fluff.

Free · unsubscribe anytime
Why The Planning Desk

We do one thing, for one kind of company.

The big consultancies chase enterprise. Software vendors sell you their box and leave. We sit in the gap: planning and supply chain, for small and mid-size manufacturers, and nothing else.

That focus is the point. We know your world: the metal, the lead times, the one planner holding it together. So we skip the discovery theater and get to the wins faster.

We're software-agnostic. We'll recommend the platform that fits your business and your budget, not the one that pays us the most. And we build so your team can eventually run it without us.

Tyler W. GrefeTG
Tyler W. Grefe
Founder · Planning & Scheduling Leader

12+ years at the planning desk, from U.S. Army logistics and the shipping dock to enterprise SIOP across five manufacturing sites. Tyler has run demand-to-capacity planning for a $100M+ operation spanning aerospace, defense, medical, and industrial manufacturing, at names like Arconic, Curtiss-Wright, Graco, Celestica, and Chandler Industries.

The results speak for themselves: 40% fewer expedites, 97% inventory accuracy, 95% on-time delivery across 27 work centers, and whole organizations freed from spreadsheet dependency. Epicor Kinetic, SQL, SIOP architecture, AI-assisted planning: he's built it, debugged it, and made the calls.

Book a Planning Diagnostic

See what's hiding in your plan.

A short, fixed-scope diagnostic that turns your real numbers into a clear picture, plus the two or three quick wins worth chasing first.

  • Fixed scope, fixed price, credited toward your next project
  • A prioritized roadmap you keep, whether or not we work together
  • Done in 2–3 weeks, not months