Comments on: The Differences Between Demand Planning, Forecasting and S&OP

By: Antonio Mangione

Antonio Mangione — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 23:49:56 +0000

In reply to Eugenie.

Eugenie,.. in S&OP, the forecast is an Output of Demand Planing.
The Demand Planing is a set of steps to get an Agreement Forecast (sales and S&OP).
The steps can vary but in the simple way we have

1 – Create forecast baseline based on demand history
2 – Generate statistical forecast of demand (12 or more months)
3 – Manually validate forecasts with commercial teams
4 – Ensure alignment during some Meetings and produce consensus forecast

The result about that is the agreement forecast in S&OP

By: Jorge

Jorge — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 12:50:17 +0000

In reply to Eugenie. I agree, the forecast is input for demand planning, like others inputs , NPD, portfolio review, they are shaping the demand ...

By: Vinicius Medeiros

Vinicius Medeiros — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 22:47:17 +0000

Great post, Karen. I would disagree with the first statement though. In my view, the goal of a business is to maximize shareholder value and not necessarily to maximize profit. Share prices can increase while the company is not making any profit. And this can happen for a long period of time. Tesla and Netflix are good examples. Thank you for sharing your work! 🙂

By: Kwazi

Kwazi — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 20:20:37 +0000

Yes I concur with that Demand planning is intertwine with forecasting: see, when u startin a business, the purpose there is to make profit or create jobs…whatever-case maybe. First u do feasibility study to check viability or availability of demand. Again this one and same thing in forecasting for the future when already done your demand planning( and remember on demand planning we can also look at priority on who your want to satisfy more then other based on loyalty and financial stability)

By: Sanjay Pareek

Sanjay Pareek — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 09:39:58 +0000

Please add me to news letter list.

By: Vinayak

Vinayak — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 19:02:09 +0000

Very insightful article . Thank you so much for sharing .

By: Eugenie

Eugenie — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 23:47:24 +0000

I am confused about “Demand planning is defined as using forecasts…” and later the article says that “forecast is an output of demand planning”. How can forecast be an output of demand planning if it is USED FOR demand planning?
Thanks

By: Henry Canitz

Henry Canitz — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 16:09:10 +0000

Hi Karin,

Nice post. A recent study showed that close to 50% of respondent companies still use MSExcel as their primary demand planning tool and the percentage is even higher for companies using spreadsheets to facilitate their S&OP process. Considering the strategic importance of these two processes to a company’s success and the undeniable shortcomings of spreadsheets to support business processes why do you think so many companies still relay on spreadsheets?