Thursday, June 13, 2019

The Upside Of Customer Demand Planning

By Angela Moore


There are often several steps companies must go through before releasing new products to the marketplace. One of the first, and most important, is to determine the amount of interest through customer demand planning or CDP. For, by knowing the amount of interest, companies can often save money by introducing the number of products which have been forecast.

CDP is also an important element when it comes to value chain marketing and management. For, the first and most important step in the process is forecasting product demand. After which, managers often have a much easier time when it comes to deploying resources necessary during the initial release phase of the product.

When it comes to CDP, it is an approach which works from the bottom up rather than top down. While this is the case, there are some risks. The associated risks include low forecast models, the accuracy and the number of planners required. For, while top down systems provide directions to employees, employees in a bottom up system are often exposed to more risks in the process.

For companies which prefer to use software to accomplish this type of planning, there are a number of companies now releasing different versions. In most cases, companies will find it best to review different packages to find the one which will work best with the specific product to be released. In addition, there are also market to consumer systems which cut out the need for middle men which can often save the company and distributor a great deal of money.

The complexities and challenges when it comes to discovering various markets are numerous though vastly different from those which suppliers such distributors and manufacturers face. As a result, the technology related to demand management for the merchant is also different compared to the manufacturer or brand on the supply side. In one case, demographics often play a major role with regards to interest in products in different areas of the world.

CPD is also aimed more at matching manufacturers with customer logic which includes customer experience, pricing optimization, creation inventory, transportation optimization, sourcing and technology. For, if a company can not plan the results of product delivery, it can often difficult to know whether or not the product has the potential to do well in the marketplace.

New technologies are assisting with CDP in different ways. Most often with predictive analytics and forecast with relation to product delivery. CDP is also changing how companies operate on a larger scale prior to becoming involved in competition with others in the marketplace. For, a number of companies are already seeing increased efficiency while cutting costs by using new methods with regards of getting products to market.

CPD being of assistance to companies with regards to productivity is not an accident. For, to be successful, companies have to be able to plan and forecast when it comes to product availability and desire so that delivery will align with public demand upon the initial release. As such, by using CDP, many companies are now experiencing more success than ever before in history.




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