Balance the flow between total supply lead time and supply chain cycle times.

Product design/definition: define the product at the latest possible stage and as close as possible to point of real demand.

Integrate and optimize inventory flows, i.e. JIT, kanban, third party warehousing.

Reduce manufacturing lead times.

Professionally collated forecasts utilizing market intelligence from marketing/sales functions.

Forecast by product family.

Easy to understand, transparent forecast formulation.

Focus on forecast accuracy performance continuous measurement/alignment.

Pareto 80:20 rule 20 per cent of the forecast will cover 80 per cent of the total demand. Increase attention on the 20 per cent and leave the 80 per cent to the computer.

Forecast with the customer customer profile assimilation.

Is there assigned responsibility for developing and maintaining forecasts?

Can forecast accuracy be measured by:

• Volume?

• Mix?

• Part number?

Can variance reports for previous forecasts be produced?

Are original and revised forecasts maintained?

Are sales tracked to forecast?

Is there a selection of 'best fit' forecasting techniques available?

Can comments be added to forecast reports and viewed on line?

Can a forecast be created by:

• Specification level?

• Model?

• Family?

• Customer?

• Other?

Can specified items be identified as 'manual' forecast only?

Can 'new product' forecasts be frozen for a userdefined period?

Are forecasts possible for defined multidimensional ABC classifications (pareto 80:20 rule)?

Does the forecast system allow input of market knowledge related information?

Is there an EDI facility or system-integrated...