Report: Companies Place Demand Planning/Forecasting as a Supply Chain Function

Lifework Search (Westport, Mass.) associates found that more than half of all companies believe that the planning/forecasting function should sit under supply chain, according to a recent study.

Lifework Search associates surveyed the company’s network to determine where the demand planning/forecasting function should sit within an organization. Associates discovered that more than half of companies placed the function under supply chain. Twenty percent of the remaining respondents categorized the function under sales, followed by 9 percent with finance and 5 percent with marketing. Fourteen percent of respondents stated “other.”

“This has long been a controversial topic in the forecasting world,” Lifework Search Managing Director Jason Breault said. “We speak with dozens of demand planning professionals daily, and many are still unclear as to where demand planning should sit. Even while presenting at a recent Institute of Business Forecasting conference, when the question was asked, there didn’t seem to be a clear consensus.”

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