How Starbucks Plan Their Demand

The use of ‘Big Data’ is increasingly becoming integral to the demand and purchasing process within global organisations. Take Starbucks, the iconic Seattle coffee brand, they rely on Demand Planners and Data Scientists to influence their market share and use predictive analytics software to learn more about consumers and to boost their overall sales.

Big data is about recording and analysing every physical and digital transaction, enabling companies to understand what customers want and aligning their resources to better meet the demand.

Starbucks uses predictive analytics based on their customer loyalty cards, websites and mobile apps to understand what coffee you drink, where you buy it and at what time of day. By correlating this with millions of other users, they gain very real insights into planning future demand.

Companies could benefit from looking at integrating Demand Planning as a function or role within their business. Competency in this area can add major value to the supply chain and to other areas within the organisation.

Using data to gain competitive advantage and working on the visualisation of information should be relatively straight forward for a demand planner.  The cost of data storage is little and its importance is beyond question.

CP Training, the development and qualifications arm of the Supply Chain Academy, provide regular courses in Demand Planning which include a focus on Big Data, the next of which is at Upminster on the 24th/25th July 2018. Details can be found here.

For further information on how the Supply Chain Academy can add leverage to your supply chain, please email info@supplychainacademy.org.uk, or call 01708 259450