Demand planning specifics in food industry enterprises

Abstract

With the development of modern approaches to integrated planning of business processes, importance has been increasing of forecasting future customer demand, also called demand planning. Although the main aim of the demand planning is to estimate the size of future sales of the company, businesses should not forget to manage demand. Effective demand management leading to a balanced demand in time is an essential prerequisite for accurate demand forecasting, optimal utilization of the enterprise capacity and easier operational management in the enterprise. The article deals with the function of demand planning in Sales and Operations Planning and in Advanced Planning Systems, focusing on the specifics of the food industry enterprises. These businesses are characterized by raw materials and products that usually cannot be stored in the long term, and therefore they can very well demonstrate the importance of managing business processes according to accurate forecasts.