How Is Demand Looking & the Critical Importance of Sales Forecasts
Industrial manufacturers are experiencing slumps across the board. The good news is that customers are not canceling orders; however, they are delaying BIG TIME.
Industrial manufacturers are experiencing slumps across the board. The good news is that customers are not canceling orders; however, they are delaying BIG TIME.
There is such a wide range of shocks that can happen to your supply chain and to the demand for what you’re making. Can you ever truly prepare? What kinds of projections are most useful, and how can you set yourself up for success if you do have the ability to anticipate a surge in demand?
Lisa Anderson, a supply chain expert and consultant who founded LMA Consulting Group, says projecting future demand is paramount when facing a demand surge.
Sales strategies and customer programs are pivotal to developing a demand plan in support of sales revenue growth goals. SIOP (Sales Inventory Operations Planning) will translate these sales forecasts into operations and supply plans for review with cross-functional teams to ensure the sales plans are fulfilled successfully and efficiently.
Clients are struggling to keep up with customer's changing requests. Order backlogs remain relatively high (depending on the industry), but customers are pushing orders out at the last minute, pulling orders in without notice, adding future potential orders, and changing requirements on the fly. Production is scrambling to keep up.
The world has never experienced a labor shortage quite like the one we are experiencing. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment growth will average .3 over the next decade; however, labor participation will drop from 62.2% to 60.4%.
Lisa Anderson of LMA Consulting Group was quoted in a Harvard Business Review report about supply chain volatility and uncertainty that are part of the new normal.
As originally published in Brushware Magazine on Sept/ Oct 2022. Inflation continues to plague the world with escalating prices across a spectrum of products and services. The price of oil and gas has continued to rise and supply chain challenges persist, creating inflationary pressures across the board. Even though [...]
Manufacturers utilize less than 20% of the full functionality of their ERP systems. But the key question is, why does it matter? In today’s inflationary and supply chain disrupted business environment, manufacturers need to automate and digitize to ‘do more with less’ and thrive during these volatile times. One important way to achieve this goal is to further leverage your ERP system where it will make a difference.
During times of volatility including inflation and recession, forecasting future sales becomes even more vital than it is during regular business cycles. Emerging from the pandemic, the global markets have experienced rising costs and significant demand. In the U.S. [...]