Integration of Forecasting in Supply Chain Forecasting and Supply Chain Planning

Abstract

Big corporates nowadays see forecasting in a light different from that was seen decades ago. The topnotch strategists came to realize that demand forecasting in and of itself was not particularly helpful
for a company. During the surveys they came across many companies that were pretty good at
forecasting, but they still struggled with their inventories, fill rates, and costs. The reason they
struggled with these problems was not that they were not forecasting well. The reason was because
they were not doing a good job of translating their forecasts into good business decisions. Sales and
marketing were not communicating well with their supply chain colleagues, and vice versa. Putting in
other words, the fact came to the surface that forecasting was not the only thing that companies
needed to work on. They also needed to work on those integrating processes that facilitate
communication between the demand side of the firm (sales and marketing in a manufacturing context,
and merchandising in a retailing context) and the supply side of the firm (the supply chain
organization, or logistics, procurement, and operations).