Email
sinha.rk.dr@gmail.com
Is your demand outlook stale?
We are in the last week of August. Supply chain teams need a reliable demand outlook for the next week to minimize stockouts and prevent surplus inventory pileup during the month-end peak. How do we get this demand outlook?
Most FMCG companies would fall back on the monthly forecast for August. This forecast was possibly done in mid-July, considering sales till June. The underlying demand data is almost 2 months old. Consumer demand as well as channel requirements would have changed significantly in these two months. Competition would have launched new promotions in the intervening period. Weather changes would have played their own role.
Isn’t this demand outlook stale?
We are bound to encounter stockouts and surplus inventory, despite padding up demand with safety stocks. Is there a way out?
Demand Sensing comes to our rescue. It considers actual demand till yesterday, deciphers patterns at the granular level, and predicts near term demand for the next few days. It also suggests what could be the maximum demand at each granular level, considering the trend of prediction errors.
Do you still want to use a stale demand outlook? Or would you switch to the ‘oven fresh’ demand outlook updated daily?