Overview
This compact, interactive course is designed to provide participants with an in-depth working knowledge of key demand and inventory planning policies, models and metrics.
The course helps participants understand the role of demand and inventory planning in the wider context of supply chain management. It aims to demonstrate how to improve the alignment between supply and demand to maintain good levels of customer service and on-shelf availability whilst eliminating excess stock and reducing inventory investment.
Who is the programme for?
- Demand planners and forecaster
- Demand managers
- Operations Managers
- Finance Managers
- Purchasing and Procurement professionals
- Category Managers
- Supply chain professionals
Participants will learn how to:
- Understand the role of demand management and its benefits
- Identify the key demand characteristics and patterns; learn how to use them to improve forecast accuracy
- Develop an understanding of key qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods
- Learn how to conduct fundamental inventory analyses with a view to achieving the appropriate trade-off between stock and service level
Course topics include:
The role of Demand Management
- The end-to-end view of Supply Chain Management
- Demand Characteristics and the Product Life Cycle
- Demand patterns
- Push and pull systems
Background to forecasting
- The forecasting Process
- Time-series methods of forecasting
- Calculating forecast errors
Inventory Analysis
- Categorisation of stock
- ABC Analysis
- Economic order quantity and minimum order quantity
- Safety stock and stock cover
Inventory Management
- Materials requirements planning (MRP)
- Stock replenishment systems
- Practical inventory management
- The cost of managing stock
