When you talk with colleagues, actual or potential customer is usual to chat
about one of the better question; Why is necessary to have a DP system ? When
is really important to have it ? both questions might to refer to the same fact
and go to common amid, to know the reasons to have one Demand Planning System
!!! I think that there area many reasons and facts that support the request to
have this kind of tool, not only five... by this post I would like to show just
some of them.
These reasons come in thanks my experience and time invest on the study,
research and develop in this field, I had tried to recollect the most usual
reasons that we can found (the customer, colleagues and I) and hope that them can
help you to strong your point of view before to take a decision, improve or
just rethink about DP system that you have.
1) Excel isn`t enough
Is true that the spreadsheet are one of the most worth things than can help
us when start a Demand Planning process, this is a good tool to check up,
probe, test and develop new models, forecast methods or algorithms, but is not
a secret that it spend a lot time to run up, difficult to tuning, high depend
of manual process, weak to keep in the time to just mentioned few.
2) To want Standardize process
Everyone knows that whether you want to improve your process one of the most
important points is close their process in activities standard, that´s avoid
ways no valid for the organizations to solve or resolve situations or tell it
in another words, take only the best way to do the stuff, How can I do this if
you don´t have a tool that support it ?
3) To have high Quantity of data
If you company not have a lot quantity of reference to forecast, don´t worry
about it maybe you won´t need a sophisticated system to support you process,
however whether you have more of ones thousands of sku´s (items by customers)
may you need to have a tool that give you guaranty of the information in and
out the business, I knew companies that start process of big data without a
clear understand of their demand process, a big mistake..!! step by step, Do
you want to fly ? you need to walk..
4) Short PLC (Product Life Cycle) now a days
now a days the PLC is shorter and faster than ten years ago, the technology and
globalization have been changed the shape of manage the life cycle of the
references in our companies making it more difficult to plan Launch of new product,
there are direct and collateral effects, that´s why you must to consider to
have a demand planning process modern and reliable.
5) To reach Wide Collaboration
One true Demand Planning process develop collaboration in both ways upstream
and downstream, that´s what is necessary to have one DP´s tool to help sharing
information in and out of the organization and left and right of it, at just in
time and with the quality enough to take advantage of those data.
I know that there are more of just five reason to have a demand planning
system, but also I am sure that this five points can help you to clear the step
to improve, take a decision or wake up motivation about the need to have a tool
to support your Demand Planning process.
I will be grateful for your comments and reviews about this post.
Thank you,
Humberto Galasso.
Demand Planning, Forecasting, Inventory and Replenishment.
Retail & Supply Chain
Retail & Supply Chain
Blog:Humberto´s blog
Linkedin profile: How is Humberto Galasso ?
