Resources

Some vendors of forecasting software go out of their way to envelop forecasting in a geeky, esoteric, statistical fog. 

When you set out to forecast sales, are you really trying to decompose time series into level, trend and seasonality? Is your aim to detect null and alternative hypotheses in tests of autocorrelation? No. The true goal of any sales forecasting exercise is to forecast human…

If we want to drive change in the supply chain planning realm, we’ll often need to shake things up and push our colleagues beyond their comfort zones. Before we embark on a shake-up, though, it’s best to know exactly what integrated business planning (IBP) is and how it differs from sales and operations planning (S&OP).

Once you’ve decided IBP can help your company maintain profitable growth,…

In my previous blog post, I shared a story about shaking things up in supply chain management. Truth be told, I think we’re overdue for a good shakeup in this industry. Since the mid-1990s, we’ve been striving to implement sales and operations planning (S&OP) and achieve its benefits.

Let’s give credit where credit is due: S&OP has been quite useful for those companies that have managed…

In our last post, we began exploring some of the quantifiable benefits of achieving S&OP excellence. Just to recap, consulting firm Oliver Wight ran a survey to measure the ROI of 40 of its clients who had achieved Class A (outstanding) performance in their sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes. You can see those results — and other good information — for yourself in an Oliver Wight white…

Don’t you just love going to trade shows and picking up glossy brochures from the various sales and operations planning (S&OP) vendor booths? Isn’t it great listening to vendors’ elevator pitches, watching their video demos, and collecting their branded T-shirts, pens, and calculators?

While you’re standing on that exhibit hall floor, everyone is smiling and helpful, and anything seems…