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Join us in March 2026 for an engaging Live Online Workshop focused on Demand Planning for S&OP. This intensive three-day event is designed to equip you with the skills necessary to transform your supply chain through effective demand planning. Accurate demand forecasting not only reduces inventory costs but also enhances customer service levels, creating a leaner, customer-centric supply chain. [...]

New product forecasting is always a challenge for most organizations. FMCG and Food & Beverage companies, in particular, experience this frequently — sometimes as often as twice a year. Ironically, most planners rely on manual forecasts that are numerically entered directly into the system, typically sourced from a brand manager responsible for the category. At times, this could be [...]

Effective supply chain management demands both efficiency and precision. At Valtitude, we combine SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) with a sophisticated segmentation algorithm to classify products and the product-customer matrix. This structured approach enhances both demand modeling and inventory strategies, helping our clients meet market demands while optimizing resources. Strategic Segmentation for Better Planning Our proprietary algorithm segments products [...]

Imagine a world where supply chains work like a dream — where demand stays consistent, suppliers always deliver and everything proceeds as planned. Unfortunately, that’s not the real world we live in. In reality, companies are constantly having to deal with more unpredictable shifts — a sudden surge in demand, an unforeseen delay, sometimes even a global disruption like the COVD-19 [...]

US tariff increases during Trump second presidency rose to 27%, the highest ever level over a century. The average tariff rate previously has been 2.5% till January 2025. This enactment of series of steep tariffs instantly made the global and share market to go unstable and created a havoc like situation globally. The steep increase impacted all the good [...]

Continuing on our discussion of Demand Consensus, I want to contrast Demand Consensus and Demand-Supply resolution. Here is our model of the monthly S&OP Cycle. S&OP Planning Cycle from week 1 thru Week 5 starts with KPIs and Statistical Demand Baseline in the first week and ends with the Executive S&OP Meeting in Week 5. In week 1, Demand [...]

As we observed in other posts on Linked-In and forums such as Medium, there is a lot of confusion on what Demand Consensus means. Some first principles: Demand Consensus is not matching Demand with Supply; in fact trying to match Demand to supply is counter to everything S&OP stands for Demand Consensus is not agreeing with the Supply Planner [...]

How do you evaluate a sudden demand spike communicated by your Sales person within lead time? This was an unforecasted surge in demand. Most companies freeze the next month or next three months from Sales Forecasting input. Sales Managers are allowed to change forecasts only outside the three month demand horizon. I am not sure if this is a [...]

Amidst a dynamic business environment, selecting the most effective planning approach can significantly impact the success of your initiatives. Two prominent methodologies - Concurrent Planning and Traditional Sequential Planning have emerged as popular choices for optimizing project execution. As decision-makers, understanding the nuances of each method is vital for making informed choices that align with your organization's goals and [...]