Achieving Market-Driven Capabilities

To achieve market-driven capabilities companies need to focus on a four-step process  

Sense demand signals through the synchronization of internal and external data. 

Shape demand using advanced analytics to create a more accurate unconstrained demand forecast. 

Orchestrate based on cross-functional collaboration with sales, marketing, finance, and operations plarming that reflect capacity constraints and market-to-market variability. 

For many, this is a radical shift. Most demand forecasting processes are supply driven with little emphasis on predicting unconstrained demand, let alone shaping demand. In the interviews of 75 supply chain pioneers, when we asked about demand shaping, we found that most companies shift, versus shape, demand to meet supply constraints. Today, the norm is fitting demand to supply, rather than supply to demand. 

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