“We start our planning with the forecast.” This is what I’ve heard in the last three (3) organizations I’ve engaged with. These three (3) organizations often started their Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) meetings with a comparison of forecast versus actual sales data. In most cases, the actual sales data didn’t come out close toContinue reading “The Real Value of Demand Forecasting”
Tag Archives: demand forecasting
The Key to Managing the Future is to Anticipate It
We do a lot to foretell the future. Organizations and individuals invest heavily in analytics and software to know what tomorrow will bring. Some offer great potential as in the case of Google’s investment in artificial intelligence for wind energy. But just as much as it may be worth it to foretell the future, itContinue reading “The Key to Managing the Future is to Anticipate It”
Managing Demand
Supply chains had been under a lot of pressure. Since year 2020, supply chain managers had to deal with shortages in merchandise and rising costs for reasons traced to the coronavirus pandemic, natural disasters, deteriorating trade relations between countries, and military conflicts. The need for supply chain engineering was mentioned repeatedly as a newContinue reading “Managing Demand”
What Should We Do When There’s Clamour?
In November 2022, this happened: The Taylor Swift Ticketmaster crash. Ticketmaster, an online ticket sales platform, cancelled ticket sales for popular singer Taylor Swift’s 2023 United States concert tour after its online ticket purchasing system crashed. The company cited “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory.” Investigations and numerous complaints followedContinue reading “What Should We Do When There’s Clamour?”
Weather Forecasting vs. Demand Forecasting: A Case of Different Expectations
Meteorologists predict what the weather will be like, whether it be tomorrow or the next few hours. Demand forecasters predict what customers will buy and how much, whether it be next week, next month or next year. When a weather forecast is wrong, we don’t hold the meteorologist accountable. We may grumble about the inconvenienceContinue reading “Weather Forecasting vs. Demand Forecasting: A Case of Different Expectations”
