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Sensing the Future: Demand Forecasting Needs To Improve for CPG

by Paul Tate

Manufacturing Executive

July 20, 2011

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Having a better idea of how much you’re likely to sell each week can have a major impact on the speed, effectiveness and cost of your supply chain. Consumer trends, of course, are notoriously fickle, so the more accurate your forecast, the more likely you are to shift the maximum amount of product.

But a new report reckons that many of the world’s largest CPG companies are still suffering from weekly forecasting errors of almost 50% in their demand planning activities.

The latest benchmarking study on forecasting performance from Terra Technology covers two years of real-world experience (2009/2010) by nine of the world’s leading consumer packed goods companies. These include Campbell Soup, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and two other consumer packaged goods companies.