Demand-Forecasting
25 Jun

Importance of Demand Forecasting in Supply Chain- 9 Authentic Reasons

The importance of demand forecasting has been the topic of discussion in economics and valuable books have been written on it over the years. However, within the supply chain context there are three types of forecasting, which are:

  • Demand Forecasting: This is the investigation of the companies demand an item or SKU, to include current and projected demand by industry and product end-use.
  • Supply Forecasting: Is a collection of data about the current producers and suppliers & technological and political trends that might affect supply.
  • Price Forecast: This is based on information gathered and analyzed about demand and supply. Provides a prediction of short- and long-term prices and the underlying reasons for those ternds1.

Additionally, the importance of demand forecasting can be short-term, midrange, or long term. Typically, firms would use all three types of forecasting.

  • Long-term Forecast: usually cover more than three years and are used for long-range planning and strategic issues. These will be a performance in broad terms; that is sales by product line or division, throughput capacity by ton per period or dollars per period.
  • Midrange Forecast: usually range from one to three years and address budgeting issues and sales plans. Again, these might predict more than demand.
  • Short-term Forecast: are most important for the operational logistics planning process. The projected demand into the next several months and, in some cases, more than a year ahead. These are needed in units, by actual items to be shipped, and for finite periods of time- monthly or perhaps weekly

If you looking to improve your Demand Forecasting process, you might want to click on the below button.


Get The Ultimate Guide to Demand Forecasting

This practical Demand Forecasting Guide explains what is Demand Forecasting, its influencing factors, patterns, characteristics and principals of forecasting. This Demand Forecasting Guide also explains Demand Forecasting Techniques, how to develop a demand forecasting process, forecast accuracy, Tips to Enhance Forecast Accuracy and also touched upon machine learning forecasting

Importance of Demand Forecasting in Supply Chain

1.      Increasing Customer Satisfaction

 

In order to keep your customers satisfied you need to provide them with the product, they want when they want it. This advantage of forecasting in business will help predict product demand. So that enough product is available to fulfill customer orders with short lead time and on-time.

 

The importance of Demand Forecasting is much higher in Made-to-Stock (MTS) , Assemble-to-Order (ATO) or JIT Supply Business.

2.      Reducing Inventory Stockouts

 

The interesting thing is you need realize the Importance of Demand Forecasting even if you are working in JIT System or with long lead time suppliers like India or China. If you are buying from long lead time suppliers then you need to send a demand forecast so that suppliers can arrange raw materials in anticipation of actual customer orders.

 

In the case of JIT Systems, demand forecasting helps you to time your purchases to correspond to when sales need to be fulfilled. The less time inventory spends in the warehouse, the less money you’re paying to let it just sit there waiting to be sold.

You can further refer to these 18 Targeted Inventory Reduction Strategies.

3.      Scheduling Production More Effectively

 

Forecasting is often compared to driving a car whilst looking in the rear-view mirror.  The past gives a few clues about the future, but not enough to stop you from driving off a cliff. But in my opinion this is the best view you’ve got! If you look into the 5 Levels of Planning Hierarches most business should need robust SIOP and Master Scheduling to schedule production more effectively.

 

But I must emphasis the solution is not complex analytical software.  The answer is this:  Master the present before trying to predict the future.  There are signals everywhere that point to how demand is changing.  Adaptive manufacturers are watching and listening closely to the way customers consume their product.  Respond and adapt to these changes, and you will depend less on prediction.

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4.      Lowering Safety Stock Requirement

 

A good demand forecasting process will have a direct impact in the planning of inventory levels, Link:

  • Developing production requests to manufacturing operations
  • Planning for new product launches
  • Planning for promotional activity
  • Planning for seasonal variations in demand.

If a business is using forecasting to plan any of the above scenarios then you don’t need to carry high safety stocks to manage those events.

5.      Reducing Product Obsolescence costs

By identifying, repurposing or removing obsolete inventory the volume of inventory on hand will decrease. With this, both direct and indirect costs of keeping the obsolete inventory will be reduced. This closely links to reduced order sizes as a smaller volume of the inventory will be in stock and demand forecast accuracy. Having a standardized reliable way of forecasting demand will mean that excess stock is not ordered and this will reduce the chance of obsolete stock.

6.    Managing Shipping Better

 

Nothing annoys me more than doing everything you can to make or buy a product so that it’s available to ship on-time yet the warehouse guys won’t ship, as they don’t have enough people. This drives me absolutely bonkers! For that reason the logistics guys are now part of the SIOP process and they have to tell me how many people they need in the following 3 months. To ensure we have enough capacity to ship material on time. This is one of the classic examples to demonstrate the importance of demand forecasting.

7.      Improving Pricing and Promotion Management

 

In some businesses, multiple promotions running concurrently may result in the cannibalization of both promoted and non-promoted SKUs. Integrating distributor-level promotions and related forecasts will allow you to improve the flow of goods. It also achieves better results in terms of availability and stock fill rates. Similarly, improving the ability to forecast the impact price changes will have on both revenue and gross margin dollars, when timed well!

8.     Negotiating Superior Terms with Suppliers

This blog explains 7 Tips for Negotiating the Best Deal With Your Suppliers, even though I don’t agree with heading “Sell Yourself as Someone Who Will Give Them a Lot of Business”, I do agree with the point that, “When negotiating with suppliers, make sure they know you are someone who will give them repeat business, over the long term”. And “And if you’re just starting out, provide them with a sales projections plan that is based on logic and research”. By doing that you are positioning yourself as a credible customer who wants to have a long-term relationship rather than one-off spot buy.

9.      Plan Sales Strategies

 

If you can use demand forecasting to get a handle on either future revenue, plan production capacities or manage stockouts, you can also use the same information to help functions like Product Management, Marketing and Product Design. This will enable them to make decisions on promotions, pricing and purchasing. When working concurrently each will influences your company’s results positively.

There are many methods of demand forecasting. There is an argument that Machine Learning Forecasting Is Better Than Traditional Forecasting Techniques.

Conclusion:

 

You don’t need any special software or super algorithm to start forecasting, a simple Excel Spreadsheet forecast will do to start with. But in my humble opinion no one can deny the Importance of Demand Forecasting qualifications to benefit whatever business you are in.

Forecasting should not be a knee-jerk reaction of complaining to the supplier or shouting of the VP, there are plenty of more productive reasons to get into trouble to gather data, getting it into shape to analyze and create base demand forecast.

I have discussed few here. Which of these 9 reasons have you applied, and what results did you get? Do share with me!

Lastlt, once you start doing the demand forecasting  you can use these 5 tips to improve forecast accuracy!

References

  • Leenders and Fearon, Purchasing and Materials Management, p.457
  • Allan F. Ayers, “Forecasting: Art or Reality?” Transportation and Distribution”, 35, no. 6 (June 1994), pp. 29-30.

Recommended Books:

About the Author- Dr Muddassir Ahmed

Dr MuddassirAhmed is the Founder & CEO of SCMDOJO. He is a global speakervlogger and supply chain industry expert with 17 years of experience in the Manufacturing Industry in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia in various Supply Chain leadership roles.  Dr. Muddassir has received a PhD in Management Science from Lancaster University Management School. Muddassir is a Six Sigma black belt and founded the leading supply chain platform SCMDOJO to enable supply chain professionals and teams to thrive by providing best-in-class knowledge content, tools and access to experts.

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