Creating organizational resilience through demand planning

Abstract

The trend of increasingly dynamic business environments for manufacturing and distribution supply chains has been well-documented over the last three decades. To adapt, supply chains are becoming more complex. The need for supply chains to increase revenues across global markets and cut costs while innovation cycles, product cycles, and technology adoption rates are shrinking, is driving the need for a more demand-centric answer. A solution that creates the resiliency necessary for a company to navigate through this chaos is the incorporation of a demand management process. Demand planning is the role or department within a company with the purpose of identifying, capturing, and disseminating this ever-changing consumer demand so supply can be adjusted, risks can be mitigated, and opportunities can be harnessed. I found the demand management solution through a systematic review of books and articles addressing the pivotal functions involved in demand management, i.e. sales and operations planning (S&OP), forecasting, and data analysis.