Logistics forecasting helps you balance supply, demand, and capacity across your supply chain
Global supply chains are becoming more complex, creating deeply interdependent networks that need to balance supply, demand, and capacity. On one side, changing consumer behaviors and expectations significantly alter required inventory levels, especially with end-to-end lead times measured in weeks or months.
On the other hand, unpredictable events create supply-based uncertainties that can easily impact upstream and downstream partners. In the middle, third-party logistics providers work to optimize capacity and throughput to meet the needs of suppliers and clients.
This delicate supply chain ecosystem fundamentally relies on access to timely and accurate data—not just on what’s happened in the past, but more importantly on what’s happening now or will happen next. This makes accurate supply chain and logistics forecasting critical to:
- Meeting marketplace demands
- Understanding international lead times
- Predicting disruptive events
- Managing the entire supply chain network
Logistics forecasting is complex. It involves juggling numerous internal and external inputs, accommodating strategic and operational changes, and integrating with a multitude of data channels. Forecasting models must consider every aspect of the supply chain.
What you can expect from our logistics forecasting insights
In this series of posts, we break some of that complexity down, focusing on several key areas:
- Challenges for logistics forecasting, looking at the obstacles to getting reliable models in place. We base our findings around marketplace challenges, technology and data challenges, and supply chain network challenges.
- Strategies for logistics forecasting, exploring the essential factors needed to improve supply chain and logistics forecasting. We base our findings around process-based forecasting, data-based forecasting, and technology-based forecasting.
- Benefits of logistics forecasting, explaining the key advantages that forecasting-focused companies can expect to see around cost, competitiveness, speed, risk management, and other areas.
We then propose a framework for implementing strong logistics forecasting throughout your supply chain, including internal business integration, external supply chain and stakeholder management, logistics forecasting development, and delivering actionable intelligence.
Our hope is that this provides you with a strong and useful foundation for understanding logistics forecasting, and working with the right logistics provider to optimize every aspect of your supply chain.
