Customer Demand Planning & Forecasting
GAINS’ powerful demand planning & forecasting technology suite makes arguments of tournament versus Bayesian forecasting redundant. By employing a sophisticated array of techniques, the Demand Planning and Forecasting solution provides unbiased and accurate demand pattern recognition abilities to reduce inventory and working capital.
Even more than just accurately predicting future demand however, GAINS allows its users to shape demand; giving organisations an unparalleled opportunity to maximise profitability by calculating and quantifying the impact of potential promotional, pricing or other event activity. Coupled with a dynamic user interface, demand planners, sales teams and management can select the most appropriate course of action to meet sales budget targets or manage constraints such as short supply.
In addition, GAINS integrates multiple data inputs extrinsic to the enterprise, such as interest rates, business cycles, and competitor performance. Depending on the business, such external forces can have significant impact on product demand, and statistically accounting for them is essential to generating a forecasting that can be confidently relied upon.
The GAINS Demand Planning solution provides algorithms, processes, and key performance indicators (KPIs) in several areas of this process. These include:
GAINS has sophisticated forecasting technology to predict shifts in demand from observed trends:
Even more than just accurately predicting future demand however, GAINS allows its users to shape demand; giving organisations an unparalleled opportunity to maximise profitability by calculating and quantifying the impact of potential promotional, pricing or other event activity. Coupled with a dynamic user interface, demand planners, sales teams and management can select the most appropriate course of action to meet sales budget targets or manage constraints such as short supply.
In addition, GAINS integrates multiple data inputs extrinsic to the enterprise, such as interest rates, business cycles, and competitor performance. Depending on the business, such external forces can have significant impact on product demand, and statistically accounting for them is essential to generating a forecasting that can be confidently relied upon.
The GAINS Demand Planning solution provides algorithms, processes, and key performance indicators (KPIs) in several areas of this process. These include:
- Algorithms for pattern recognition based on observed, historical demand
- Algorithms for new item launches based on neural network analysis
- Algorithms applicable for maintenance applications determining parts needs, based on reliability and fleet usage/effort history and projections
- Processes and portals to manage detailed exceptions for expert review
- Processes and portals for incorporating unstructured, aggregate market knowledge into the plan for middle or top-down adjustment
- Algorithms to statistically calculate and predict the impact of promotional activity, pricing changes and other events
- Processes and portals to simulate, plan, manage and review promotional and event activity
- Algorithms to incorporate structured, aggregate leading indicator data into the demand planning process
- KPIs to review the efficacy of both GAINS “raw” plans as well as the value-add of refinements and adjustments.
GAINS has sophisticated forecasting technology to predict shifts in demand from observed trends:
- These trends are Leading Indicator Analysis (LIA) where the trend being before demand is impacted
- Leading Indicator data is interfaced to GAINS, and influences the demand forecast
- Examples of leading indicators include: weather, interest rates, housing starts, unemployment rates, currency fluctuations etc
- GAINS runs a multi-variate regression analysis against these leading indicators and observes demand to calculate the relative influence of a given indicator