Demand management (statistical forecasts, promotions, new products, end of life, etc.) is an essential process that often precedes the optimization of supply chain performance. It enables the company to benefit from visibility and the capacity to anticipate. Over and beyond the implementation of efficient IT systems, the reliability of the forecasts depends on the company’s ability:

• to deploy collaborative processes that define the roles and responsibilities of each player and are in line with both best practices and the specifics of the company (products, customers, etc.),
• to qualify, quantify, collate and share the disparate information in the company (and in some sectors, of customers),
• to measure performance and empower, or even incent, the players (supply chain, marketing, sales, etc.).

Argon Consulting helps its customers in:

• the identification of the challenges related to existing malfunctions and the estimate of the cost of overhauling the organizations and tools (case for change),
• the overhaul of the processes and the development of collaborative working methods with in-house (supply chain, marketing, sales, etc.) and external players (customers, suppliers, etc.),
• the clarification of the target organization in terms of skills and size, organization (central vs. local, by product line or by market) and roles and responsibilities,
• the incorporation of demand planning in all the processes that is coherent with the company’s supply chain model,
• the development of the best adapted models (management control roles, statistical models, levels of aggregation, etc.),
• the implementation of alerts, KPIs and scorecards,
• the selection and implementation of tools to draw up deployment forecasts (authoring of the specifications, management of calls for tender, deployment strategy, implementation assistance, project management and risk management, etc.),
• deploying a plan for improvement (training, fine-tuning of models, etc.) and change management (changes in culture, behavior, skills and communication).