Demand Planning

Align high-level business planning with detailed item forecasts to synchronize demand across products, customers, and product groups.

Problem

An accurate forecast is a critical supply chain driver, but many organizations have a limited view of what comes next. Forecasts developed by sales teams or customers are often inaccurate and biased toward sales goals or budgets. Forecasts are often provided only at aggregate levels leaving unspecified which items will be at which locations. Planning teams are left to interpret sales figures and convert them into actionable forecasts of the item mix.  Incorporating sales feedback, determining which decades old forecast model to use, managing the consensus forecast process, and tracking forecast accuracy are manual processes.  They are often managed in complex spreadsheets that are difficult to use, share and scale, and don’t account important features of demand such as seasonality and trend.

Solution

Smart Demand Planner™ is a consensus demand planning and statistical forecasting solution available on Smart’s Inventory Planning and Optimization Platform, Smart IP&O. Smart Demand Planner, powered by the SmartForecasts® Engine, aligns strategic business forecasting at any level of your product hierarchy with granular forecasts of the item mix to improve forecast accuracy. It provides a statistically sound, objective foundation for your sales and operations planning process (S&OP).  Smart Demand Planner’s collaborative workbench enables forecast overrides to be applied, imported, reviewed, and approved by authorized users driving the consensus plan. Forecast accuracy is measured, helping ensure that the best possible forecast is delivered to the business at both the aggregate and item mix levels. The result is more efficient sales planning, budgeting, production scheduling, ordering, and inventory planning.

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    Accurate Demand Forecasts

    Capture trend and seasonality
    Predict range of future demand
    Flag exceptions
    Cleanse historical data

    Operational Consensus

    Collaborate with key stakeholders
    Review at any level of hierarchy
    Apply overrides and achieve consensus

    Consistent Repeatable Process

    Common system
    No spreadsheets
    Embed and reuse forecast rules
    Monitor accuracy and fine-tune

     Customers Using our Demand and Inventory Forecasting Software

    MRO & Aftermarket Spare Parts

    Manufacturing

    Distribution

    Who is Smart Demand Planner for?
    • Demand Planners.
    • Forecast Analysts.
    • Material & Inventory Planners.
    • Operational Research Professionals.
    • Sales Analysts.
    • Statistcally Minded Executives.
    What questions can Smart Demand Planner answer?
    • What is my short and long term demand most likely to be?
    • Which areas of the business and products are trending?
    • What is the forecast at different levels of my hierarchy (customer, item, family)?
    • What is the likely range of future demand?
    • Which forecasts need to be reviewed (exception reporting)?
    • What is our forecast error (accuracy) for each item, group, overall?
    • Are forecast overrides adding value to the process?
    What can Smart Demand Planner do?
    • Accurately forecast demand for thousands of items in any unit of measure, powered by the SmartForecasts® engine.
    • Capture trends, seasonal, and cyclical patterns at any level.
    • Outlier detection and correction to enhance the quality of historical data.
    • Identifies “causal” factors such as price and economic data and models their impact on demand.
    • Patented Intermittent Demand Planning via APICS award winning “Bootstrapping” technology.
    • Create forecasts at any level of the hierarchy – customer, item, product groups, regions.
    • Share forecasts with internal and external stakeholders such as sales and suppliers.
    • Apply, document, and track forecast overrides.
    • Quantify the impact that promotions will have on future demand.
    • Apply user defined forecasting methods and rules.

      Get the Product Sheet

      Smart IP&O, a modular platform for Inventory Planning & Optimization

      1 SmartForecasts Tile 1
      1 Demand Planner Tile 1
      1 Smart Inventory Optimization Tile