Overview
Data Management is where your supply chain is defined inside PLAIO. It's the structured representation of your products, network, demand, and supply policies — the foundation every plan, forecast, and schedule is built on.
You can find it in the left-hand navigation under Data Management → Overview.
Purpose
PLAIO's planning intelligence depends on data being structurally consistent and logically connected — not perfect. Data Management gives you a 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 in PLAIO falls into distinct categories, each playing a unique role in planning. Data categories will only appear if the related modules are within your commercial agreement.
Master Data
Defines the structure of your supply chain — the 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, organizational groupings
Demand Data
Represents expected market needs over time. Demand initiates the planning process and propagates through supply and production models.
Forecasts (ML-generated and manual)
Firm customer orders
Derived demand from BOMs and production requirements
Supply Data
Defines 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
Describes the physical layout and planning complexities of your shop floor — the resources, capacities, and constraints that shape how production can actually be scheduled.
Production Constraints — sequencing rules, changeover requirements, and capacity limits
Downtimes — planned periods when resources are unavailable
Overrides — manual adjustments planners apply 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
Worksheets vs. 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 (like 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.