LookAhead - Practical Framework for Demand Forecasting by Gazelle
Demand forecasting is used by many organizations globally to predict the requirement of the right product at the right place and the right time. The objective is very simple, to reduce excess inventory and to reduce shadow demand.
However, it has been noticed in many a places, there are many factors like lack of available data etc., which make it inappropriate to just fit a forecasting software to generate a sales forecast. It has been observed that the forecast by doing so, is very poor in accuracy even at the depot level.
Enter 'LookAhead': The holistic people, process and technology framework
Our LookAhead Supply Chain Product driven forecasting solution adopts a framework that proposes:
- To set up the processes and manage the change
- To provide technology to capture tertiary sales data, sales forecasting, supply planning, dispatch planning and analytics
- To provide a planner on demand service to run the entire solution
- And can finally make all this available as a subscription based service with cloud accessible software minimizing CAPEX and increasing ROI.
Key Domains that LookAhead forecasting can be helpful
Consumer Durables
Food & Beverages
Automotive
Specific FMCG
Looking to implement LookAhead in your organisational supply chain planning?
Key Scenario's suited to adopt LookAhead Solution
Lack of Availability of Data
Most organisations have limited data at the tertiary level (distributor to retailer) and at the end consumer level and hence forecasting becomes difficult
No Collaborative Planning Process
even very mature and large organizations, do not have an established collaborative planning process. The concept of S&OP is not followed in the true sense
Limited Statistical Forecasting
Organisations have limited understanding of how statistical forecasting can be used to generate a baseline forecast that can be moderated upon.
Whitepaper on Practical Framework for Demand Forecasting in India
Highlights of LookAhead Framework
LookAhead brings together the stakeholders in terms of finance, sales, production, marketing and supply chain along with the executive management.
This helps organisations to develop better S&OP Processes, especially when driven by the management
For eg: In times when demand outstrips supply, the S&OP Process are helpful in identifying the more profitable product that will be sold hence resulting in better utilization of the resources.
It helps to capture data at the lowest level.
We have developed and deployed technologies that capture sales at the retailer level. These include a smartphone based sales capture system that can be deployed at the retailer or can be used by the sales person to capture the sales.
Also included is a modem that is attached to a distributors or a retailers system (if he has one) and it automatically logs n to the system and captures the daily sales and transfers it to a central server.
Additionally, this entire solution is on the cloud. This has drastically reduced the Total Cost of Ownership of organizations and now they are more willing to invest the reduced amount required and reap the benefits.
LookAhead not only provides the Process and Technology but also takes care of the human friction in adopting new technologies and system.
It has been seen that the investment in software for demand planning fails very quickly after implementation. This is due to no organization being available to run the process till it is ingrained into the system.
As a result, LookAhead provides organizations with a demand planner, and continuous support to run the whole demand planning process, helping organizations to reap the benefits of the advanced tools and technologies.
Looking to implement LookAhead in your organisational supply chain planning?
Some Supply Chain Transformation Insights
Check how your Organisational Supply Chain ranks on Digital Transformation with Gazelle's SCARE Score