Demand Forecasting Best Practices

Lead your demand planning process to excellence and deliver real value to your supply chain.

In Demand Forecasting Best Practices you’ll learn how to:

Lead your team to improve quality while reducing workload
Properly define the objectives and granularity of your demand planning
Use intelligent KPIs to track accuracy and bias
Identify areas for process improvement
Help planners and stakeholders add value
Determine relevant data to collect and how best to collect it
Utilize different statistical and machine learning models


An expert demand forecaster can help an organization avoid overproduction, reduce waste, and optimize inventory levels for a real competitive advantage. Demand Forecasting Best Practices teaches you how to become that virtuoso demand forecaster.

This one-of-a-kind guide reveals forecasting tools, metrics, models, and stakeholder management techniques for delivering more effective supply chains. Everything you learn has been proven and tested in a live business environment. Discover author Nicolas Vandeput’s original five step framework for demand planning excellence and learn how to tailor it to your own company’s needs. Illustrations and real-world examples make each concept easy to understand and easy to follow. You’ll soon be delivering accurate predictions that are driving major business value.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the Technology
An expert demand forecaster can help an organization avoid overproduction, reduce waste, and optimize inventory levels for a real competitive advantage. This book teaches you how to become that virtuoso demand forecaster.

About the Book
Demand Forecasting Best Practices reveals forecasting tools, metrics, models, and stakeholder management techniques for managing your demand planning process efficiently and effectively. Everything you learn has been proven and tested in a live business environment. Discover author Nicolas Vandeput’s original five step framework for demand planning excellence and learn how to tailor it to your own company’s needs. Illustrations and real-world examples make each concept easy to understand and easy to follow. You’ll soon be delivering accurate predictions that are driving major business value.

What's Inside

Enhance forecasting quality while reducing team workload
Utilize intelligent KPIs to track accuracy and bias
Identify process areas for improvement
Assist stakeholders in sales, marketing, and finance
Optimize statistical and machine learning models



About the Reader
For demand planners, sales and operations managers, supply chain leaders, and data scientists.

About the Author
Nicolas Vandeput is a supply chain data scientist, the founder of consultancy company SupChains in 2016, and a teacher at CentraleSupélec, France.

Table of Contents:

Part 1 - Forecasting demand
1 Demand forecasting excellence
2 Introduction to demand forecasting
3 Capturing unconstrained demand (and not sales)
4 Collaboration: data sharing and planning alignment
5 Forecasting hierarchies
6 How long should the forecasting horizon be?
7 Should we reconcile forecasts to align supply chains?
Part 2 - Measuring forecasting quality
8 Forecasting metrics
9 Choosing the best forecasting KPI
10 What is a good forecast error?
11 Measuring forecasting accuracy on a product portfolio
Part 3 - Data-driven forecasting process
12 Forecast value added
13 What do you review? ABC XYZ segmentations and other methods
Part 4 - Forecasting methods
14 Statistical forecasting
15 Machine learning
16 Judgmental forecasting
17 Now it’s your turn!