Good businesses are full of excellent processes; product development, customer order fulfilment, production, shipping and distribution and in most cases these processes also have a budget, resources and people performing and improving the processes.

However, when it comes to Demand Management, generally we don’t see mature processes in place instead ‘ad hoc’ people, usually the salesman, sucking their thumbs raw at month end and trying to satisfy the boss with a forecast for the next month, or if we are lucky, two months! There is generally no budget, few resources and nobody dedicated to ensure that this important task takes place, and more importantly, is improved.

The ultimate object of the Consensus Demand Planning process is to provide the business with the input to drive the three levels of planning; Strategic Planning, Executive Sales and Operations Planning and Master Production Scheduling.

• The Known, The Unknown, The Really Unknown

• Sales History vs. Demand History

• Consensus Demand Plans and The Budget

• Forecasting Time Horizons

• The Demand Team, Budget and Process