Email
sinha.rk.dr@gmail.com
How granular should you go for Demand Sensing?
In our quest to improve the agility of Demand Sensing, we covered the frequency of demand sensing in the last post. People often ask me… how granular should we go? The granularity can be in the product dimension or the geography dimension. Let’s cover it in this post.
If two products in the same geography are expected to respond differently to market conditions or demand drivers, we should sense their demand separately. Similarly, if the same product behaves differently in various geographies, we should again sense its demand in each such geography. Let me explain.
We know that consumer offers have differential impact in various geographies. The same offer may be a blockbuster in one area and get a timid response in another. Unless we sense its demand separately, this discerning pattern is lost in aggregate level forecasting, where a uniform blip is often assumed all across. No wonder supply chain teams struggle with stockouts in one area and stare at surplus and ageing stocks in another.
Going more granular makes the Demand Sensing more discerning and useful.