Kinaxis RapidResponse Supply Chain Planning Training Course

Course overview

Supply chain plans fail when demand, supply, inventory, capacity and supplier constraints are assessed in separate systems or refreshed too slowly. Kinaxis RapidResponse is designed to support concurrent planning, but planners need more than navigation skills to use it well: they must understand data relationships, model assumptions, exception signals and the trade-offs behind each response. This course equips experienced supply chain professionals to use RapidResponse to identify material risks, test alternatives and communicate an executable plan before disruptions become expedites, missed revenue or excess stock.

Participants work through the core RapidResponse planning workflow: navigating workbooks and worksheets, interpreting supply and demand data, building filters and views, managing alerts, analysing constraints, and creating what-if scenarios. They learn how demand, supply, capacity and inventory plans interact; how to compare scenarios using service, inventory and cost measures; and how to prepare decision-ready outputs for sales and operations planning, supply reviews and supplier escalation. The course also addresses data quality, planner governance, role-based access and the practical limits of system-generated recommendations.

Instruction combines guided RapidResponse demonstrations with structured exercises in a training environment. Participants use realistic planning data to investigate shortages, create exception-focused worksheets, simulate supply and demand changes, and recommend a recovery plan. By the final day, each participant produces a RapidResponse-based planning playbook containing an exception workflow, scenario comparison, decision log and implementation actions that can be adapted for their own planning team.

The course is best suited to planners, analysts and supply chain leaders who already work with ERP, APS or planning data and need to turn RapidResponse into a disciplined daily and weekly decision-support process.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure RapidResponse workbooks, worksheets, filters and hierarchies for exception-focused planning analysis
• Trace demand, supply, inventory and capacity relationships through RapidResponse data models and planning views
• Interpret alert signals and prioritise shortages using material availability, customer impact and lead-time criteria
• Build what-if scenarios that test demand shifts, supplier delays, capacity losses and inventory policies
• Compare scenario outcomes using service, backlog, inventory and cost-oriented planning measures
• Create exception-management workflows with ownership, escalation triggers and decision-status tracking
• Produce decision-ready dashboards and worksheet outputs for supply reviews and S&OP meetings
• Develop a RapidResponse planning playbook containing a scenario analysis, recovery recommendation and action log

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Supply Chain Planners — who need to resolve demand, supply and inventory exceptions in RapidResponse
• Master Planners — who balance capacity, material availability and customer commitments across planning horizons
• Demand Planners — who need to assess the supply and inventory consequences of forecast changes
• Supply Planners — who manage constrained supply, supplier delays and allocation decisions
• S&OP and IBP Analysts — who prepare scenario evidence and planning decisions for cross-functional reviews
• Supply Chain Systems Analysts — who support RapidResponse users, data structures and planning-process adoption

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least six months of experience in supply chain planning, procurement operations, manufacturing planning or inventory management. They should understand basic concepts including demand forecasts, bills of material, lead times, safety stock, capacity constraints, purchase orders and planned orders. Familiarity with spreadsheet analysis and an ERP or planning system such as SAP S/4HANA, Oracle or a comparable platform is expected. Prior Kinaxis RapidResponse experience is helpful but not mandatory; the course begins with navigation and core object relationships. Participants do not need programming, SQL, data-science or RapidResponse administration experience.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses instructor-led RapidResponse demonstrations followed by hands-on work in a configured training environment. Participants build and modify worksheets, investigate alerts, and work with demand, supply, inventory and capacity data from a realistic multi-site planning case. Small groups compare recovery options for shortages and present their recommendations as they would in a supply review. Daily debriefs connect tool actions to planning governance, while the final session converts each participant's case outputs into an application plan and RapidResponse planning playbook.

Course outline

Day 1: RapidResponse foundations and connected planning data

• Kinaxis RapidResponse navigation, roles and workspace structure
• Workbooks, worksheets and shared planning views
• Demand, supply, inventory and capacity data relationships
• Planning hierarchies, dimensions and aggregation logic
• Worksheet columns, calculated fields and saved views
• Filters, prompts and drill-down methods for planner analysis
• Data-quality checks and interpretation of planning assumptions

Workshop: Participants build an exception-focused material availability worksheet and document the data fields required to investigate a customer shortage.

Day 2: Exception management and supply-demand balancing

• RapidResponse alert concepts, thresholds and alert severity
• Shortage analysis across finished goods, components and bills of material
• Demand prioritisation by customer, product and commitment date
• Supply pegging and traceability of demand-to-supply relationships
• Lead-time, supplier and purchase-order exception analysis
• Inventory policy interpretation and safety-stock impact assessment
• Exception triage workflows, ownership and escalation rules

Workshop: Participants investigate a multi-level component shortage, prioritise affected demand and produce an exception escalation record with proposed actions.

Day 3: Scenario planning and response options

• RapidResponse scenario-management principles and scenario scope
• Baseline plan selection and scenario version control
• Demand-change simulations and forecast-risk assessment
• Supplier-delay and supply-loss response modelling
• Capacity constraint simulations and production rebalancing
• Inventory redeployment, allocation and substitution options
• Scenario comparison using service, backlog and inventory measures

Workshop: Participants create and compare three response scenarios for a supplier disruption, then recommend the preferred option using quantified planning measures.

Day 4: Collaborative planning decisions and reporting

• RapidResponse dashboards and planning visualisations
• Designing decision-ready worksheets for supply reviews
• Key performance measures for service, inventory and supply risk
• S&OP and IBP decision packages from RapidResponse outputs
• Collaboration workflows, comments and decision-status tracking
• Role-based access, shared content and planning governance
• Communicating scenario assumptions, risks and recommended actions

Workshop: Participants prepare a supply-review pack containing an executive dashboard, scenario comparison and decision log for a constrained product portfolio.

Day 5: Operational application and planning playbook

• Daily, weekly and monthly RapidResponse planning cadences
• Planner operating procedures for alerts and exception queues
• Root-cause analysis for recurring supply and inventory issues
• Data stewardship and master-data dependencies in planning outcomes
• RapidResponse adoption measures and user-performance indicators
• Integration touchpoints with ERP, Excel and reporting tools
• Personal implementation planning for workplace application

Workshop: Participants complete a RapidResponse planning playbook with an exception workflow, scenario template, stakeholder actions and 30-day application plan.

Tools & standards covered

Kinaxis RapidResponse, Microsoft Excel, SAP S/4HANA, ASCM SCOR Digital Standard

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions