Is Demand Planning MIA?

Is Demand Planning missing in action in some companies?

Or is it completely missing and never part of the operational planning process?

I know smaller businesses miss out on the features and capabilities that a Demand Planning function can bring - a key reason why Valtitude/Demand Planning LLC started offering outsourced planning solutions since 2015. However, this does not seem to be just with small companies.

Many mid-market companies do not have a well-defined demand planning function. Typically the commercial team does a forecast at the brand level for their own target setting purposes.

Out of courtesy, they throw a spreadsheet over the fence to the Operations group. The supply planners pick it up and try to make sense out of this aggregated forecast and split hairs along with this the forecast down to SKU and DC level.

That sloppy and tortured forecast becomes the key input into the MPS process with eventually bad outcomes. Are you missing the Demand Planning function or capability?

This is the first gap you should plug if you want to improve operational planning. Connect with us and we will help you find it!