With the coronavirus pandemic and its lingering effects, companies have now experienced how challenging it can be to plan and maneuver their supply chains around uniquely disruptive, once-in-a-lifetime events.
Rapid, sudden economic shifts disrupt global supply chains and markets.
In recent times, they’ve forced many businesses to fundamentally shift their operating models and revise their sourcing strategies.
Events outside the control of the enterprise underline the critical importance of accurate and timely demand planning and forecasting.
An effective demand planning and forecasting system empowers enterprises across the board.
Streamlining plans with timely data and more accurate forecasts in raw material sourcing, for example, can improve the effectiveness of production plans.
The result? Cost savings. Real-time analytics – and the insights drawn from the data – allow the enterprise to quickly pivot to minimize business risk.
But the unfortunate truth is that less severe events overwhelm or undermine supply planning all the time.
Legacy tools are no longer up to the task of getting supply where it is needed most.
To achieve fast and accurate demand planning in the year ahead, businesses have to overcome these five problem areas: