Sensing Compliments Planning
“To improve demand visibility, companies will move beyond historical forecasting and establish a foundation for demand sensing and shaping that spans short- and long-term time horizons.”
Welcome to a New World of Forecasting
Demand Sensing compliments demand planning to open a new world of forecasting that goes beyond historical sales. Demand Sensing automates the computationally intense and repetitive tasks of analyzing masses of daily data from across the value chain – activities that are particularity well suited for pattern recognition algorithms. This lets planners plan and frees up valuable time so that they can focus on longer-term strategic and promotional activities.
Differences between traditional forecasting and Demand Sensing include:
- Uses seasonal patterns to predict sales
- Primary driver of the forecast is average sales at this time in past years
- Does not understand the relationship between demand in different periods
- Confuses promotions with seasonality
- Uses current demand signals and order patterns to predict orders
- Optimized blend of all demand signals
- Understands the relationship between demand in different periods
- Understands promotions are not seasonality
The net result is better forecasts for better business outcomes.