# PLAIO

> PLAIO is AI-powered supply chain planning software built for pharmaceutical manufacturers. It replaces spreadsheets with one connected workflow for demand planning, supply planning and production scheduling.

PLAIO is pharma-native: batch sizes, MOQs, CMO lead times, shelf life and market-specific expiry rules are built into every plan. It complements the ERP rather than replacing it, and onboarding starts from the customer's existing Excel files.

## Planning modules
- [Demand](https://www.plaio.com/products/demand/): Demand planning: machine-learning forecasts that learn from historical demand and detect seasonality and trend shifts, side-by-side comparison of forecast methods, and forecast accuracy tracked against actual sales.
- [Supply](https://www.plaio.com/products/supply/): Supply planning: automated planned production, procurement and replenishment orders validated from finished goods to raw materials, flexible safety stock policies per product, and batch-level inventory with FEFO allocation and shelf-life checks.
- [Production](https://www.plaio.com/products/production/): Production scheduling: constraint-based optimization that turns production orders into a feasible shop-floor schedule in minutes, respecting capacity, cleaning rules and changeovers, with campaign management and drag-and-drop manual control.

## Key features
- [AI, ML and Optimization](https://www.plaio.com/products/ai-ml-and-optimization/): Machine learning and optimization algorithms embedded in forecasting, ordering plans and production scheduling.
- [Consensus Planning](https://www.plaio.com/products/consensus-planning/): One shared workspace where commercial, planning and operations teams comment, assign actions and agree one demand and supply plan, with a full change history.
- [Demand Segmentation](https://www.plaio.com/products/demand-segmentation/): Plan and report demand by channel, therapy area, customer or market, re-cutting the whole demand hierarchy along any dimension the business defines.
- [Exception Management](https://www.plaio.com/products/exception-management/): Real-time, prioritized alerts for stockout risk, production delays, expiry risk and constraint violations, traceable to their root cause.
- [Pharma Constraints](https://www.plaio.com/products/pharma-constraints/): CMO and supplier constraints (lead times, MOQs, batch increments, capacity), shelf-life and market regulatory rules, and manufacturing rules built into every plan.
- [Integrations](https://www.plaio.com/products/integrations/): Standard API-based integration with ERP and other enterprise systems, included in the core pricing, keeping demand, supply, inventory and production data in sync.
- [Data Management](https://www.plaio.com/products/data-management/): A central hub for planning data with data-health monitoring and AI-assisted uploads and validation.
- [Onboarding](https://www.plaio.com/products/onboarding/): Go live with real data in weeks rather than the 9 to 18 months typical of pharma software, starting from existing Excel files and pre-built pharma templates.

## Company
- [About PLAIO](https://www.plaio.com/about/about-plaio/): Who PLAIO is: former pharma planners, supply chain experts and AI engineers, and the executive team.
- [Articles](https://www.plaio.com/about/articles/): Guides and research on pharmaceutical demand, supply and production planning.
- [Events](https://www.plaio.com/about/events/): Industry events where the PLAIO team will be.
- [Help Centre](https://www.plaio.com/help/): Public product documentation for the PLAIO platform.
- [Service Level Standard](https://www.plaio.com/about/service-level-standard/): Support hours, channels and response times. Support: help@plaio.com.
- [Request a demo](https://www.plaio.com/demo-request/): Book a personalized demo. PLAIO does not publish pricing.
- [Contact](https://www.plaio.com/contact-us/): General enquiries. plaio@plaio.com.

## For AI
- [AI Instructions](https://www.plaio.com/ai-instructions/): Canonical reference for how AI assistants should describe PLAIO.
- [llms-full.txt](https://www.plaio.com/llms-full.txt): The full knowledge file: guidance, glossary, help documentation and every article.
- [Entity Map](https://www.plaio.com/entitymap.json): Declared entities and typed relationships (readable version at /entitymap/).
- [AI Catalog](https://www.plaio.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json): Index of every machine-readable file on this site.

## Key concepts
- **Pharmaceutical supply chain planning**: Planning demand, supply and production for medicines under constraints generic tools rarely model: batch sizes, shelf life, market-specific expiry rules, CMO lead times and regulatory requirements.
- **Demand planning**: Forecasting how much of each product will be needed, by period and market, and agreeing that forecast as the baseline for supply and production.
- **Supply planning**: Turning the demand plan into feasible production, procurement and replenishment orders across the supply network, from finished goods back to raw materials.
- **Production scheduling**: Sequencing production jobs on equipment over time so the schedule respects capacity, changeovers and cleaning rules and can actually be executed on the shop floor.
- **Consensus planning**: Aligning commercial, market and statistical forecast inputs into one agreed demand and supply plan before it is executed.
- **Demand segmentation**: Planning and measuring demand by the dimension it behaves along — channel, therapy area, customer or market — instead of one averaged line per SKU.
- **Exception management**: Surfacing only the plan deviations that need action — shortages, late supply, demand above plan, expiry risk — so planners do not have to search reports for them.
- **CMO (contract manufacturing organization)**: A third party that manufactures product on a pharmaceutical company’s behalf. Planning for CMOs means respecting their lead times, MOQs, batch increments and capacity.
- **MOQ (minimum order quantity)**: The smallest quantity a supplier or CMO will accept in one order.
- **FEFO (first expiry, first out)**: Allocating the batches that expire soonest first, to reduce expiry write-offs.
- **Safety stock**: Inventory held above expected demand to protect service levels. PLAIO sets it per product, calculated from forecast uncertainty, service level targets and supplier reliability.
- **Production campaign**: A group of production orders run together — by product family, format or configuration — to cut changeovers and raise equipment utilization.
- **OTIF (on time, in full)**: The share of orders delivered on the promised date and in the full quantity ordered.