There are two kinds of forecasting. Unconstrained demand forecasting focuses on raw demand potential without factoring in possible constraints such as capacity and cashflow. On the other hand, constrained forecasting takes into account the limitations of the operations part of the business.
A Demand Planner gathers information from many departments to create a working plan. Finance, Marketing, Operations all provide insight. The Demand Planner combines their input with historical sales data, marketing and advertising ‘lift’ and aggregates this information into actionable reports for the Executive team. A good Demand Planner has analytical skills, can create insightful reports, and understands the data sources limitations. Finally, having basic programming skills to work with the IT department is essential.
Not understanding your end customer, having incomplete data, and bad reporting can kill your business dream.
