EQUITY RESEARCH
June 22, 2023 Company Update
KINAXIS INC.
Highlights From The 2023 User Conference
Our Conclusion
Kinaxis hosted its annual Kinexions user conference in Nashville earlier this
week. The event was the biggest Kinexions ever, with 730 in-person and
1,500 online attendees. The overall mood was optimistic, with supply chain a
continued area of c-suite focus and AI leading to new automation
opportunities. Amid this environment, management outlined a vison of
RapidResponse extending concurrency beyond supply chain planning and
into other elements of supply chain management. The company began this
journey with the acquisition of MPO last year and at the conference
announced the extension into scheduling. We see other potential extensions,
including into finance. With Kinaxis recently standing up an install base sales
team, we see an untapped opportunity to cross-sell into its long-tenured
customer base. We retain our Outperformer rating and $200 price target.
Key Points
MPO Integration Progressing: The acquisition of MPO was a key step in
extending into supply chain execution, with management noting that during
the pandemic, most of the supply chain risk was on the execution side. With
the solution, customers will know immediately when a disruption occurred in
the execution, enabling them to update plans. The offering allows additional
data to be integrated into the planning process, leading to outcomes such as
more realistic lead times. With the integration progressing, MPO has been
rebranded Kinaxis Supply Chain Execution.
Kinaxis Enterprise Scheduling: Kinaxis announced the release of Kinaxis
Enterprise Scheduling, which harmonizes scheduling across production sites
and creates a comprehensive manufacturing schedule. Traditionally,
production scheduling has been done through multiple scheduling solutions
across various manufacturing facilities within an enterprise. Kinaxis
Enterprise Scheduling aims to centralize scheduling, connecting the
schedule to the overall supply plan while considering different plants and
optimizing capacity from plant to plant.
Planning.AI: Kinaxis highlighted new features within Demand.AI that will
ingest data signals and sense changes over multiple time horizons,
automatically adjusting forecasts to empower planners with better insights.
Management also provided a sneak peak into future offerings, including a
chat interface powered by generative AI that can be used to speed up the
creation of code, help automate supply chain and generate briefings for
executives, among other capabilities.
Sustainable Supply Chain: Kinaxis announced the first module in its
Sustainable Supply Chain, which will allow companies to embed emissions
data into RapidResponse, allowing an understanding of the emissions
associated with a plan.