Forecasting Best Practices Essay -- essays research papers

Forecasting Best PracticesEffective demand planning and gross sales prognostication across the supply chain can bring a host of benefits. Specifically, it can help improve labor productivity, reduce percentage point count, cut inventories, and speed up production flows, and increase revenues and profits.-Edward J. MarienTo find the best practices for anticipation, our team researched many cases of supposeing success, and raise five companies with a ballpark theme. Rayovac, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, AAi. FosterGrant, the Sara Lee Corporation, and the Scotts Company all had major problems with forecasting, some of them very similar. To carry on and solve these problems each of these companies made major improvements to their forecasting systems. Although some utilize similar methods and others very different, these companies found that the right people, process and information engineering was the key out to efficient and accurate forecasting. RayovacRayovac discovered the proper use of forecasting when it implemented its consensus decision-making teams to improve their performance. They believe that the best information comes directly from the customer. Therefore, their forecasting takes place from the bottom-up. Sales, marketing, finance, and supply chain builds a consensus for forecasting, inventory management, scheduling, w atomic number 18ho exploitation, and transportation. Their consensus forecasting is the function of a cross-functional team.For their annual planning process, a bottom-up and a top-down forecasting procedure is used. The top Key Results Measures (KRMs) are compared with the bottom-up forecast which is developed by the consensus teams. Meetings are held to align the two when there are discrepancies. Monthly meetings are held to update the bottom-up forecast and actions are interpreted to bring the forecast and annual plan into alignment. Rayovac has discovered some key guidelines to be used for successful forecasting and p lanning1.Actually using the forecast to drive the business and not... ...orecasting cannot be understated. Many companies pull in found that after successful forecasting and proper use of people, process, and technology have led to increased performance of the company as a whole. This has been proven in our analysis of the current best practices of forecasting in the workplace.References1.Bowman, Robert J. Scotts Cultivates a Customer Centric tote up set up Strategy. world-wide Logistics and Supply chain of mountains Strategies, July 2004.2.Hoffman, Kurt C. Whos That Behind FosterGrants Demand. Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies, celestial latitude 2003.3.Marien, Edward J. Demand Planning and Sales Forecasting A Supply Chain Essential. Supply Chain Management Review, 19994.Murphy, Jean V. More Accurate Forecasts institutionalize Sales, Operations Planning New Life at Sara Lee Unit. Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies, March 2003.5.Murphy, Jean V. Special Iss ue collaborative Commerce Forecasting Tool Lowers Coke Bottlers Inventory. Global Logistics and Supply Chain Strategies, November 2002.