Unearthing Demand Planner Efficiencies

The number of products a demand planning manager can handle is heavily dependent on how easy or difficult it is to develop a reasonable forecast for those products. Improving a planner’s efficiency not only allows each planner to effectively handle more SKUs, but can also free up time for them to focus on additional ways to further improve forecast accuracy.

And improving forecast accuracy is important – each one percent improvement can lead to a corresponding one percent decrease in “just-in-case” inventory or a combination of a decrease in inventory and an increase in customer service. The end result is to move closer to your company’s optimal supply chain efficient frontier.

Here’s one of eight tips in the ebook: Did you realize only 30% of demand planners have a certification or specialization in Supply Chain Management? One clear way to achieve improvements is to focus on continued training to strengthen the skills of your demand planning team. The portfolio that a planner can handle is directly related to skill level and business knowledge. Training can boost proficiency in supply chain knowledge, use of statistics, data analysis skills and even business expertise. Look to industry organizations and your supply chain planning solution provider for advanced certification and training courses.

Pulling together data from recent surveys, industry benchmarks and decades of practical experience, our Unearthing Demand Planner Efficiencies eBook highlights seven best practices in addition to the one above to help improve the efficiency of your demand planning – and supply planning – teams. Download it now to get started.