Data Management with PLAIO

Data Management is where your supply chain is defined inside PLAIO. It is the structured representation of your products, network, demand, and supply policies — the foundation every plan, forecast, and schedule is built on.

Find it in the left-hand navigation under Data Management → Overview.

What it gives you

PLAIO’s planning intelligence depends on data being structurally consistent and logically connected — not perfect. Data Management is the single place to:

• Review what data is currently loaded
• Upload or update data via Excel
• Configure planning parameters through worksheets
• See how your entities relate to one another

Data categories

Data falls into four categories, each playing a distinct role in planning.

Master data

The structure of your supply chain — entities and relationships that don’t change day to day.

• Items — products, SKUs, raw materials
• Bills of Material (BOMs) — component relationships
• Locations — plants, warehouses, suppliers, customers
• Resources & Hierarchies — equipment, lines, organisational groupings

Demand data

Expected market needs over time. Demand initiates planning and propagates through the supply and production models.

• Forecasts (ML-generated and manual)
• Firm customer orders
• Derived demand from BOMs and production requirements

Supply data

How demand is fulfilled — where planning decisions become concrete.

• Planned receipts and on-hand inventory
• Order Policies — replenishment rules
• Supplier Constraints — lead times, MOQ, IOQ, review periods

Production data

The physical layout and planning complexities of your shop floor.

• Production Constraints — sequencing rules, changeover requirements, capacity limits
• Downtimes — planned periods when resources are unavailable
• Overrides — manual adjustments applied on top of default planning logic

How to upload data

From Data Management → Overview, click the upload button for the relevant entity. Each upload guide lists required and optional fields.

• On your first import, PLAIO asks you to map your Excel columns to PLAIO fields
• The mapping is remembered for all future imports of that entity
• For automated integrations, contact your Customer Success Manager

Full detail in Manually Uploading Data.

Worksheets versus uploads

Some data can be configured directly in PLAIO worksheets without re-uploading:

• Order Policies worksheet — create and assign replenishment policies
• Supplier Constraints worksheet — adjust lead times, MOQ, IOQ inline
• Items master data — assign policies to items

Worksheets are best for ongoing maintenance. Excel uploads are best for bulk changes or initial loads.

Best practices

Get the structure right first, then refine data quality over time. PLAIO produces stable plans even with imperfect data, as long as relationships are consistent.

Upload master data before transactional data. Items and Locations must exist before orders or constraints can reference them.

Use clear, unique IDs. PLAIO uses these to link entities. Avoid duplicates in master data, and capture relationship-specific terms — such as supplier lead times per plant — in the appropriate constraint worksheet rather than duplicating master data.

Trust PLAIO’s validation. The upload interface flags issues at import time, so you don’t need to pre-validate exhaustively.