Tweet “Demand Planning”, “Forecasting”, “Brand Operations”, and “Planning” These are not only terms that you will find on my resume, but also the answer I’ve given in social settings when asked what I do for a living. I’ve yet to give an answer without receiving the inevitable follow-up query: What exactly is a Demand Planner?…
Tweet We all know that you should measure processes. There is a lot of literature written on this subject, and most companies now have some sort of Lean or Six Sigma program and quality management system that requires processes to be measured for evaluation and improvement purposes. Control is another big aspect of metrics. One…
Tweet Last night while I was at the joint APICS/IBF/CSCMP Holiday Networking Collaborative in Boston, MA these three words came to mind, “Strength in numbers.” But before I can explain these three simple words, I should first explain all the abbreviations, right? APICS is the Association for Operations Management, IBF is the Institute of Business…
Tweet This is a good question. As I traveled down to Florida for the IBF’s Supply Chain Planning & Forecasting: Best Practices Conference w/ Advanced Practices in S&OP Forum I wasn’t sure which was harder to explain as a concept. After a few days at conference I can, with confidence, say that Sales & Operations…
Tweet What do battery operated lawnmowers, $1B of crop protection annual R&D and making chemical drum orders on your iPhone have in common? More than you would think. All of these things have been used as examples of how the world’s leading companies are working to improve their supply chain planning and forecasting process at…
Tweet Teamwork, collaboration, transparency and increased profitability. Sounds like some Disney Magic, right? Well based on the experiences shared from the panel at the Institute of Business Forecasting & Planning’s kickoff event on Sunday dubbed the ‘Advanced S&OP Practices Forum’ it’s in fact real and achievable. The panel, which was an opening to IBF’s Supply…
Tweet One of the interesting things about forecasting finished goods is how many functions participate in the development of the forecast and are subsequently impacted by the results. In a typical S&OP and consensus forecasting process, Sales, Operations and Planning collaborate to reach a best forecast to drive the operations and profit forecast for the…
Tweet I’m sure that all of us have played the Telephone Game at one time or another. One person starts a message that travels through several people and then we all have a good laugh over how much that message changed by the time it got to the last person. As funny as that can…
Tweet Why don’t you have these in stock? Why do you have so many of these in the warehouse? Why is your fill so low? Do these questions seem familiar coming from members of your management team or your customers? Of course they do! They are constantly asked throughout the year as we all try…
Tweet Folks, we must constantly remind ourselves that “process” takes precedence over “technology” and technology should be designed to enable best practices. During the e-revolution many of the process best practices were first identified by those designing demand planning software. For example, the ability to identify exceptions to pre-defined rules in real-time and instantly issue…
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