Technology > Forecasting & Demand Planning | SupplyChainBrain

Forecasting & Demand Planning: Page 133

Dorman Products Transforms Its Demand-Planning Process

With sales of roughly half a billion dollars, Dorman Products is one of the world's leading manufacturers of automotive parts for the aftermarket, selling more than 100,000 distinct products. The company has experienced sharp growth over the past four years, says director of corporate forecasting Donald H. Mitchell. Recently, it saw the need to transform its demand-planning process, in order to create "a more transparent environment."

The Challenge of Lean Collaboration for OEMs, Contract Manufacturers

A conversation with Jay Hollenbeck, director of business solutions with Flextronics.

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Attracting and Retaining Talent in Demand Planning

The notion that companies are having no trouble finding supply chain talent is "a misperception in the marketplace," says Jason Breault, managing director of LifeWork Search. Media reports of high unemployment levels don't take fully into account the white-collar sector, where more than a million jobs have been added. Unemployment in that area is down to 4 percent, which isn't far from the 2-percent figure that is considered full employment, Breault says.

JDA Software Group Opens Its First Office in Russia

JDA Software Group Inc. has opened its first office in the Russian Federation.

How Can Your Company Become Demand-Responsive?

Is the term "demand responsiveness" a true call to action on the part of manufacturers, or is it just another buzz phrase? Rakesh Sharma, president and founder of Zyom Inc., believes it can have real value. He defines the term as an approach whereby companies with physical products work closely with an "ecosystem" of partners on the sales side, communicating through multi-tiered channels. Finding out in a timely fashion what has changed in those channels is no simple task anymore, given the expanding network of partners in outsourced relationships.

Is 'Big Data' to Blame for Sales Forecasts Not Being Realized?

At the end of any quarter, the last thing CFOs want to hear is that more than half of forecasted sales did not close. Unfortunately, this scenario is quite common. CFOs blame sales staffs for faulty forecasts, while sales teams try to shift the blame to IT for not giving them the right tools to turn fuzzy forecasts into actionable data.

The S&OP Journey of PG&E

Gas and electric utilities may have a number of unique operating characteristics, but they share with other industries the need to emphasize customer service, operate safely, create a reliable supply chain and reward shareholders. PG&E's pursuit of those goals led it to integrate formal sales and operations planning (S&OP) into the organization.

Damco Offers Ability for Constant Replanning of Shipments

Damco has launched a new service allowing customers easily to re-plan shipments in line with changes in delivery date, product cost or carbon footprint.

An Introduction to Portfolio Planning

Most companies go through some form of portfolio planning, whether they use that term or not, says Eric Symon, principal with Digital Tempus. He defines it as a strategic effort to determine "what products you're going to sell to whom, and what businesses you're going to invest in." The model can help businesses to understand which products are growing in demand, and which need to be phased out.

Building the Supply Chain of the Future

The past few years have brought radical changes to the world of supply chain management. The business climate today is not only more complex, due to shorter product life cycles, increasing service demands from channels, price erosion and global customers with specialized needs but much more uncertain due to supply risks.

Big Data Supply Chains: Sense, Plan, Learn - and then Act

Analyst Insight: Today's supply chains are efficient, and inflexible. Market conditions change, but planning continues based on historical information. Global supply chains need better planning, but traditional technologies are not up to the task. New technologies are emerging to help to fill the gap. We are entering the era of Big Data Supply Chains that will sense before responding and learn before acting. - Lora Cecere, partner, Altimeter Group

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ToolsGroup Offers Outsourced Service for Optimizing Inventory Targets

ToolsGroup, a vendor of supply-chain planning software, has created an outsourced service which feeds optimized inventory targets to customers.

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