Supply chain planning and manufacturing teams need a short-term forecast for the demand of different finishing processes. The implementation of a Demand Sensing (DS) system generates many advantages over the once already used in many companies; in order to cope with the demand for short-term forecasts, DS provides companies with the necessary tools to meet difficulties.
· Increases efficiency and productivity.
· Generates an intelligent daily forecasting (IDF).
· It is an agile and flexible system.
· Creates accurate short-term demand forecasts for finished products.
· Reduced inventory levels.
· The need of external IT consultants is significantly reduced.
· Generates excellent results without any human intervention.
· Achieves a high level of automation of the entire process.
· Costs of IT projects are reduced.
· Safety stock can be reduced on average by 10%.
· Freeing up more time for value-added tasks.
· Collaboration between the supply and demand planning team is fostered.
· Two teams working much more closely together and pursuing the same goals.
In the other hand, we have the disadvantages of not implementing the use of Demand Sensing:
· The use of a large number of manual steps.
· The need of someone to enter the data, overwrite and work with it.
· No time to overwrite forecast results because of the lots of demands planners have to attend.
· The long time it takes for demand planner reviewing orders and adjusting forecasts.
· The planner would disrupt not only his own processes but also several technical processes.
· Extra pressure and work on supply chain planners.
· Competition between demand and supply planning teams, causing extra work checking each other.
Instead of starting projects within each category, IT division could build a global model for all categories in specific regions, in such a way that Demanding Sensing is able to build interfaces much more efficiently. A new and more sophisticated solution is the use of Multi-Enterprise Demand Sensing /MDS), a software that allows to effectively generate forecasts by reconciling multiple daily demand forecasts.
Demand Sensing is aiming at a level of process automation involving a minimum of human interaction. At the same time, DS is looking at a further integration of customers and sales divisions, enabling companies to create end-to-end planning.
How responsive is your Supply Chain - How demand sensitive is your signal?
Dave Food