What Is an End-to-End Planner and How Do We Get There?
End-to-end planners connect decisions across demand, inventory, supply, production and procurement. Their rise also changes how we think about the traditional IBP cycle.
4 min read
Buy Planning Software or Vibe Code It in Excel?
AI makes it surprisingly easy to build planning tools in Excel. The harder question is whether your planning team wants to become responsible for maintaining them.
3 min read
Excel vs Supply Chain Planning Software
Excel can support sophisticated supply chain planning. The real difference appears in everything around the forecast: data, workflow, collaboration, scenarios and control.
5 min read
The Worst Forecast Is Not Always Your Biggest Problem
The SKU with the worst forecast accuracy may not be your biggest planning problem. Better prioritization connects forecast exceptions with their business impact.
5 min read
How the Supply Chain Planner Role Is Changing
The planner’s role is shifting from processing information toward managing exceptions, trade-offs, and decisions. What skills and KPIs matter as planning technology improves?
4 min read
Is Your Planning Process Ready to Move Beyond Excel?
Excel is often a great place to start supply chain planning. It is flexible, familiar, and easy to build around. The question is: when has your planning process outgrown Excel?
2 min read
The Forecast Model Doesn't Have a Sales Target
Statistical forecasts have no sales targets or capacity constraints. In S&OP, the challenge is separating genuine market insight from incentives that can quietly bias the forecast.
4 min read
Why Forecast Overrides Often Make Forecasts Worse
A demand planner reviews the statistical forecast and decides the number looks too low. Sales expects stronger demand, a customer may be preparing a promotion, or recent conversations suggest that…
3 min read
AI Should Move Planning From Analysis to Action
For many planners, a large part of the working day is still spent trying to understand what happened before deciding what to do about it. They review dashboards, compare forecasts, investigate…
4 min read
Why Planning Sophistication Should Be Invisible to the Planner
Why Planning Sophistication Should Be Invisible to the Planner Supply chain planning technology has become far more sophisticated. Forecasting methods have improved, machine learning is more…
4 min read
Why Mid-Market Companies Need Different Planning Software
For years, supply chain planning software has largely been developed with large enterprises in mind. That is understandable. Global companies often manage complex networks, thousands of SKUs,…
5 min read