Operational forecasting is a daily battle, fought SKU by SKU. Aggregate demand plans provide input, but don’t bridge the gap between longer term planning and daily operational needs. Typical problems include:

• Inaccurate forecast disaggregation
• Persistent forecast bias
• Rudimentary consumption logic

These issues degrade daily operational forecast accuracy and prevent companies from achieving targeted customer service levels. Demand Sensing provides:

• Three Dimensional Demand Profiling - Provides accurate detailed “demand profiles” needed for daily operational planning. Demand is disaggregated in three dimensions, daily, geographically, and by individual SKU.
• Persistent Forecast Bias Monitoring - Overcomes the persistent forecast bias inherent in most demand planning processes and sales reward systems.
• Real-time Forecasting - imports fresh daily demand data, and immediately senses changes in the demand signal by comparing the demand to expected demand patterns and evaluating the statistical significance of the change. This highly accurate demand signal is then netted out at a micro level using advanced consumption logic at the individual SKU level.

For more information, download the “Demand Sensing” Executive Brief.