ELENA ZAMORA
Demand planning is the group of actions and techniques that are needed to provide stock in one or more warehouses with the objective to maintain a correct level of stock in order to satisfy the average demand of the consumers in a period of time. There are many departments that help us with the necessary information:
- Purchases: show the quantity and the economic value of our product in inventory prices.
- Warehouse: the number of product that we stock and the way that is done this stock.
- Inventory: the entrance that we receive will take part of the existences of the firm.
There are some key points to take into account to develop a demand planning:
- Human resources
- Information and technology
- Interdepartmental collaboration
- Indicators of performance
Also is important take into account the unsatisfied demand of the previous years and analyze the historical data of sales and captures the data in relation with some commercial actions like discounts, offers, promotions…
An example of demand management in a business with a large product portfolio is Nestlé, this company received the help of and innovator and expert in sales forecasting who make an improvement in Nestle benefits with a reduction in their inventory by removing human judgement and enabling the predicting of future demand through demand shaping. The technology that the expert applies consist in detect the signals of demand rather than trend and seasonality, automatically telling a business what demand signals are actually influencing consumers purchasing of products up and down hierarchy.
Business Logistics 