When you come to a conference, all you want is to talk to as many people as you can so you can learn what everyone else is doing and learn from them. Speaking with one attendee, they shared how in their group, there is only four demand planners, spread across the globe. The benefit...
Wednesday afternoon kicked off this year’s Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning’s Best Practices Conference with a near-standing room only pre-conference Demand Management Forum. The Forum was led by Mike Gilliand from SAS and a panel of experts who brought the group through three topics: (1) Applying demand management sensing, shaping and creating, (2)...
“We will what?” I had heard it. We will be doubling shipments in the next 4 months, and this was just the beginning. I cannot say I wasn’t excited. It felt good. Volumes going up.. Its a good problem to have. But the memories of demand sliding unexpectedly were etched clearly in my mind.....
Demand planning and forecasting is a process which, because of its intrinsic focus on “error”, too often invites misguided efforts at producing perfection. Like the alchemists’ quest for gold, the goal is illusory and may cost more than any benefit it yields. Consider that the result of demand planning is only profitable to the...