Demand Planning.net is an educational and industry resource for forecasting and supply chain professionals provided by Demand Planning, LLC.  Demand Forecasting is the lifeblood of most businesses and is an important building block for market share forecasting, business planning, industry modeling, supply chain planning, and long-range strategic planning.  

Demand Planning.Net announces summer web workshops!

We'll be launching a series of three insightful workshops- Introduction to Demand Modeling and S&OP, Inventory Management using Demand Forecasting Metrics, and a tool specific workshop covering Error Metrics in APO DP.

Demand Modeling and S&OP is an intensive, two module (July 31, August 7 2009) hands-on training session using a modeling tool. Error Metrics (July 29 2009) is a specialized session that explores the mechanics behind the statistical models in APO DP. Inventory Management (August 5 2009) workshop illustrates the effect of demand forecast error on your inventory policy.

NEW: Forecast Reconciliation Article!

This article describes the importance of reconciling a top-down forecast and Bottom-up forecast through aggregation and disaggregation methodology. Such type of forecast balancing is proved to improve demand planning accuracy. Read Now!

APO in SCM 4.1 (and SCM 5.0) is a much improved planning system compared to the previous versions of the tool itself and versus its competition.  APO offers a variety of modeling options from basic time series models to multiple linear regression models.

APO DP also offers the capability to model, forecast and manage the process by exception through

• exception alerts and
• user defined macro alerts.

It is important to leverage the full functionality of APO modeling and exception management.  If implemented correctly, you can take advantage of the many automated modeling strategies available in APO resulting in a more streamlined planning process and organization.  Learn more.

 Learn more...

Demand Planning Discussion Forum!

The Discussion Forum is a resource for sharing ideas and questions in Demand Planning, Forecast Metrics, Sales and Operations Planning, Supply Chain Score-carding, CPFR, Account Based Forecasting and inventory optimization topics.  This is board is moderated and questions answered by experts in the area, including Senior consultants at Demand Planning LLC.  Please visit the forum and post your questions.

Know the popular acronyms in demand planning and supply chain management.

Here is a  list of key acronyms and abbreviations used very commonly by supply chain professionals.  Some are more specific to forecasting, nevertheless this should be a useful reference.

Is calculating and reporting forecast accuracy becoming a daunting task every month? 

DemandPlanning.Net provides an user-friendly tool that is highly customizable to your data model and creates analyzable reports in Excel spreadsheets with pivot capabilities.  All the metrics required are already built into this software.  It also comes with a rich set of exception management reports.  This is also available on a hosted basis where we maintain the database of forecasts and actual sales and provide the reports through a repository accessible on the web.  Please contact us for further info at 781-995-0685 or through email at info@demandplanning.net! 

Demand Planning LLC provides specialized consulting and education in the areas of Demand Management, Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP), and Supply Chain Analytics.   Learn more.

Demand Planning starts with a sound statistical model and adds intelligence through collaborative and consensus management of the demand information process. 
Business Planning - Promotional Planning - Collaborative Planning - Vendor Managed  Inventory Process - Account Based Forecasting -Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) Process

Supply Chain Metrics include Demand Metrics - Customer Service Metrics - Inventory Metrics - MAPE and Forecast Bias

Retail Share and POS forecasting cover POS Data - Share Analysis - Market Forecasting - Market Mix Modeling - Retail Inventory

How do you go about mapping and re-defining the Metrics for your supply Chain?  What is the key driver of the supply Chain? More.

Is there a profile of Safety Stock Coverage required for different Customer Service levels? Yes.  Here is a profile of inventory coverage levels at various required service levels.  More.

How do lead times factor in safety stock calculations?
Lead times are an important factor in deciding inventory levels at the receiving point.
More.