Customer demand can come from multiple sources. For each source of data, programs have been developed to read the incoming data and convert them to sales orders and/or IPUs that can be recognized by the supply chain planning system.

For example: SAP ERP, Custom ERP, Material Releases from Customers, On-Line order entry from catalogs and configurators, the Master Production Schedule (MPS), or custom production constraint systems (PCS).

For purpose of this courseware, we will assume sales orders have already been captured by another system and imported into the Supply Chain Workbench.