Overview
As the pressure to reduce costs intensifies, sourcing commodities at lower prices has become essential for suppliers in multiple industries. Sales forecasting processes in many businesses lack the accuracy and sophistication needed to optimize operations and profits. Demand planning systems have traditionally been out of budget for many businesses to deploy. Yet despite new cost-effective technologies, many businesses continue to forecast using spreadsheets that lack sophisticated performance analysis.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information and finance as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply Chain Management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies
Managers are finding creative ways to mitigate supply chain costs while maintaining operational efficiency. New approaches, technologies, and methodologies are aiding with these cost-cutting measures