A New Era of Demand Planning

Accurate forecasts help companies minimize inventory, maximize production efficiency, streamline purchasing, optimize distribution, maximize customer service, and ensure confidence in their projections. However, developing accurate product forecasts at all stages of a product’s life cycle can be quite challenging.

In the past, supply chain planners used multiple forecasting methods tuned to perform well for different products or varying phases of the product life cycle, chosen to best exploit the available historical data and degree of market knowledge. The key was to pick the most effective and flexible methods and models, blend their best features, and shift between them as needed to keep forecast accuracy at its peak. However, the advent of new technologies and the rising utility of AI has brought in new way of forecasting that includes:

• Ensemble Modeling – Harness the collective knowledge of diverse models for enhanced accuracy, stability, and adaptability
• Driver-Based Forecasting – Identify the main drivers of business and how those drivers affect its revenue, costs, and cash flow
• Demand Sensing – Monitor real time data such as customer orders, consumer sales, inventory in the channel, social sentiment signals or weather to dramatically improve near-future forecast
• Explainable Forecasts – Embrace AI-driven forecasts with GenAI in an understandable way