AI Demand & Purchasing

Know what you'll need and how much,before you place the orders.

INVO combines future orders, configurations and bills of materials with the history of actual consumption, inventory levels and deliveries in transit to forecast component requirements and prepare a purchase recommendation.

INVO — Demand & Purchasing · next production

Units

26 400

Configurations + bills of materials

Carbon fiber required

1 482 kg

In stock
610 kg
In transit
300 kg
Missing
572 kg

Recommended order

600 kg

Order today

Why this is hard

Component requirementschange every single day.

How much you need to buy doesn't depend only on how much you used last time. The production plan changes, the configuration changes, actual consumption changes and so does the stock you already hold.

  • 01

    The number of units changes

    New orders, call-offs, rework, cancellations and contract changes all affect production volume.

  • 02

    The configuration changes

    A different configuration means different bills of materials and different requirements for specific components.

  • 03

    Actual consumption changes

    The bill of materials doesn't always match what production really uses once scrap and rework are counted.

  • 04

    Available stock changes

    Deliveries, issues, waste and leftover stock all change what actually needs buying.

So the question isn't

How much did we buy last time?

but

How much will we need under the current production plan?

From demand to component

From a number of units to a concreterequirement for every component.

INVO combines the demand forecast with configurations and bills of materials, then converts it into specific material requirements.

  1. 01 — Demand

    How many units will we produce?

    26 400

    units

    Standard
    12 800
    EO/IR payload
    4 200
    Extended range
    3 400
    Other
    6 000

    The volume forecast can account for program, customer, variant, delivery lot schedule and order history.

  2. 02 — Configurations & bills of materials

    What will we produce?

    Bill of materials #284

    per airframe

    Carbon fiber
    180 g
    Epoxy resin
    120 g
    Aluminum parts
    150 g
    Adhesive
    10 g

    The configuration plan and bills of materials determine which components future production needs.

  3. 03 — Material requirements

    How much of each component will we need?

    18 420 kg

    total

    Carbon fiber
    1 482 kg
    Aluminum stock
    1 240 kg
    Epoxy resin
    830 kg
    Adhesives
    620 kg

    INVO converts planned production into material requirements at SKU level.

  4. 04 — Purchasing need

    What actually needs buying?

    672 kg

    net requirement

    Required
    1 482 kg
    Available
    610 kg
    In transit
    300 kg
    Safety stock
    100 kg

    Only after accounting for stock and deliveries do you get the real purchasing need.

Control center

Demand, stock and purchasing riskin one place.

A planner shouldn't be analyzing thousands of SKUs by hand. INVO shows the forecast and the items that actually need a decision.

INVO — Demand & Purchasing Control Center
Forecast units
26 400
Material requirements
18 420 kg
Recommended orders
42
Stock coverage
3.2 days
SKUs needing attention
7

Items requiring a decision

SKURequiredAvailableIn transitRiskRecommendation
Carbon fiber prepreg1 482 kg610 kg300 kgHighOrder 800 kg today
Aluminum 6061 bar1 100 kg340 kg500 kgMediumOrder 300 kg tomorrow
Copper wire420 kg95 kg0 kgCriticalOrder 400 kg today
G10 sheet280 kg310 kg200 kgExcessHold the next order

Management by exception

Don't analyze every product.See only what needs a decision.

INVO can monitor thousands of items at once. The planner focuses on the exceptions — shortage risk, excess stock or a delivery timing problem.

Critical

Carbon fiber prepreg

Required
1 482 kg
Available + in transit
910 kg
Shortage
572 kg
Shortage probability
92%

Action

Order 800 kg today

Excess

PA12 powder

Expected demand
420 kg
Available + in transit
610 kg
Expected excess
190 kg

Action

Cut the next PO by 200 kg

On track

Epoxy resin

Expected demand
830 kg
Available + in transit
860 kg

Action

No action needed

AI analyzes every item. The planner decides where they are genuinely needed.

How it works

From a unit plan toa recommended order.

  1. 01

    We know what has to be produced.

    INVO uses future orders, the configuration plan, build counts and bills of materials.

    • Orders
    • Units
    • Configurations
    • Bills of materials
  2. 02

    We predict the real requirement.

    Models use the history of actual consumption to determine how much material will likely be needed under the current plan.

    Planned requirement
    1 420 kg
    Historical patterns
    +4.4%
    Expected requirement
    1 482 kg
  3. 03

    We check what is actually missing.

    The forecast requirement is compared against stock, deliveries in transit, safety stock and supplier terms.

    Required
    1 482 kg
    − Available
    610 kg
    − In transit
    300 kg
    + Safety stock
    100 kg
    Net requirement
    672 kg

Models & technology

Different questions requiredifferent models.

The models draw on data collected in the INVO data warehouse: the history of orders, configurations, bills of materials, actual consumption, stock and deliveries.

  • Orders
  • Configurations
  • Bills of materials
  • Consumption
  • Inventory
  • Suppliers
  • Deliveries

Forecasting model

How much will we likely need?

The model analyzes earlier runs and checks which factors influenced actual consumption. When a similar production plan appears, it uses those relationships to predict the future requirement.

Planned

1 420 kg

Forecast

1 482 kg

Benefit: A more realistic forecast based on actual execution.

Gradient Boosting

LightGBM · XGBoost · CatBoost

Time-series models

How will the requirement change over time?

The models analyze recurring patterns and changes over time, so they can forecast demand for the coming days or weeks.

Mon

1 482

Thu

1 340

Benefit: You see future requirements with enough lead time.

Time-Series Forecasting

N-HiTS · Temporal Fusion Transformer

Risk model

How high is the risk of running out?

Production is not fully predictable. That's why the model can show not just one forecast, but a range of possible requirements and a level of risk.

Expected range

1 400–1 560 kg

Stockout risk

82%

Benefit: The planner can match inventory levels to the actual risk.

Probabilistic Forecasting

Quantile Regression · Conformal Prediction

A more complicated model does not always mean a better forecast. We pick the model that best predicts the real requirement on the client's own data.

From forecast to action

The forecast says what you'll need.INVO works out what to actually buy.

How the recommendation is built

AI forecast · required
1 482 kg
Inventory · available
610 kg
In transit
300 kg
Safety stock · min
100 kg
Net requirement
672 kg
Supplier · MOQ
200 kg
Supplier · lead time
24 h

Recommended order

800 kg

Order today

The recommendation doesn't come from the forecast alone. INVO also accounts for what is already in stock, what is in transit and the supplier's constraints.

The optimization engine can account for

  • MOQ
  • Lead time
  • Supplier availability
  • Safety stock
  • Warehouse capacity
  • Shelf life
  • Purchase cost

From alert to purchase order

  1. Alert

    572 kg of carbon fiber may be missing within 48 h.

  2. Recommendation

    Order 800 kg today.

  3. Approval

    The planner approves or adjusts the recommendation.

  4. Purchase order

    The order moves into the purchasing process.

The goal isn't another dashboard. The goal is an earlier and better purchasing decision.

Business impact

A better forecast means less excess,fewer shortages and fewer emergency buys.

Overbuying ↓

Fewer excess purchases

Match prepreg, cell and resin purchases to expected demand.

Emergency buys ↓

Fewer last-minute purchases

Detect future shortages before you have to buy at the last moment.

Inventory ↓

Less capital frozen in stock

Hold stock that matches expected demand and the level of risk.

Stockout risk ↓

Lower risk of running out

Identify the components the future configuration needs earlier.

Planner time ↓

Less manual analysis

The planner focuses on exceptions instead of reviewing every item.

Service level ↑

Better component availability

Make the supply the production plan depends on more predictable.

ROI calculator

Work out the potential on your own costs.

The two most common sources of cost: excess purchasing and last-minute emergency buys.

14,000,000 USD
2.0%
20%

Current cost: 280,000 USD

Savings potential

56,000 USD

/ year

≈ 4,667 USD a month

The simulation shows the potential scale of the effect and is not a guarantee of results. The actual outcome depends on processes, data quality, purchasing structure and the scope of the implementation.

AI Demand & Purchasing

See what your production will need,before you place the next order.

In the demo we'll show how INVO combines the production plan, configurations, bills of materials, actual consumption and stock to forecast future requirements and prepare purchase recommendations.