Demand Management - Research Paper Example

This is because with a good demand and supply matching, companies benefit in several aspects of their corporate management including logistics, stocking, manufacturing and even retailing (Lapide, 2006). Because demand and supply trends keeps changing by the day, companies are obliged to have a stronger mechanism that can serve as a yardstick for getting accurate predictions for trends and hence forecasting. Demand Forecasting for Manufacturing Enterprise Manufacturing enterprises have been identified as one outfit that has so much potential when it comes to the appropriate use of demand forecasting to ensure projection of business goals.

The most underlying effect or reason behind the meriting use of demand forecasting in manufacturing is the fact that competitive pressures that manufacturers receive often makes it impossible for these manufacturers to wait for demand to emerge before they can behind taking the necessary steps towards meeting these demands (Greene, 2003). In effect, The Material Requirements Planning (MRP) technique of demand forecast has been appropriate for the purpose of "make to stock" strategy rather than "make to order" strategy so as to ensure that they are able to deploy inventories of manufactured products into field locations (Caplice, 2003).

Consequently, the situation whereby orders made by customers are delayed becomes a thing of the past in utilizing accurate demand forecasting. There are a number factors and conditions that may make forecasting inappropriate for a manufacturing enterprise. One of these has been identified to be bias in demand forecasting when using independent demand. Caplice (?2003) has explained that bias is a form of inaccuracy in demand forecasting, leading to a situation where forecasting do not become appropriate for manufacturing planning and decision making.

Generally, Caplice (2003) believes that “bias is the persistent tendency of the forecast to err in the same direction, that is, to consistently over-predict or under-predict demand.” The reason this phenomenon makes forecasting inappropriate is that it leads to a situation where there is always a self-centered judgmental approach to manufacturing decisions inside of an evidence based approach to decision making (Lapide, 2006). Consequently, when bias comes, it gives an indication that the demand data has been wrongly used.

This is because bias is a representation of total pattern of error instead of the existence of just a series of errors. Making manufacturing decisions would thus mean that there is going to be either excesses or shortages, depending on the trend of bias. Demand Forecasting for Service Provider There are several works of literature that looks into different methods or techniques of forecasting, appropriate and inappropriate for service providers. Generally, the use of subjective approach or technique to forecasting has been explained as a very viable approach of demand forecasting that works best to the interest of service providers.

Generally, a subjective approach to forecasting may be explained as one that makes use of qualitative procedures based by the opinions of people to undertake demand forecasting (Taylor, 2006). Ideally, this approach to forecasting is said to be appropriate and suitable for service providers because of the nature of business that these people are involved in. unlike manufacturers who deal with quantities of goods or