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  Supply Chain Management
  Supply Chain Management SCM Sales Forecast
  Supply Chain Management SCM Planning
  Supply Chain Management SCM APS Advanced Planning Scheduling

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Sales forecasts are a crucial part of the supply chain. Indeed, all calculations made rely on this information.

The sales forecast cycle: Sales forecasts are calculated based on the archives available to the company (orders, sales), which are “cleaned” of exceptional events by the forecaster.
  Depending on the I.T. system, the forecaster benefits from “expert” help (choice of the best adapted statistic formula in accordance with product profile) in order to most wisely forecast consumption in accordance with the Sales Plan of Action (the effects of special offers, seasonable ness, launchings, the arrival of competitors, lifting products).
  The forecaster is henceforth helped by the sales network so as to improve the accuracy of the sales forecasts.
Collaborating has enabled to take accout of “the market intelligence” of sales networks via the Internet: archives are much better qualified and cleaned, and allow you to record the forecasts of the sales points closest to the final customer.
When the Marketing Action Plan corrections have been integrated, and the extrapolation statistics have been carried out, the cycle continues with the definitive validation of the Sales Management before integrating the information into a different type of calculation: resources plan (Industrial and Sales Plan).

What are the advantages to the company?
  Working with a common frame of reference (“single number”)
  Organising a transversal cycle allowing optimum resources (meetings, consensus meetings, S&OP)
  Anticipating supplies thanks to I.T. tools, which would otherwise be beyond the bounds of possibility
  Increase the level of customer satisfaction
  Reducing the incertitude of one’s vision of the future market, thanks to an automatic calculation of forecast quality.

Horizon and clipping: The forecast cycle runs on a monthly basis. The updates are done weekly in order to manage events occurred during the week. That is not to say that forecasts should be limited to the short term: certain forecast models will allow you to define or set up factories over the next decade so as to obtain optimum investment. The depth of the horizon and its clipping follow the needs of the company.