ABSTRACT
Supply chain efficiency is linked with a better understanding of demand. Planning process steps are affected by what is needed, when it is needed, and where it is needed. Forecast error often becomes the scapegoat for lack of an efficient response. Accurate forecasts are an oxymoron; forecasts will always be inaccurate. In advanced supply chains, careful management of this inaccuracy and trade‐off involving the incremental cost of producing higher accuracy versus the gains in service, processing costs, and inventories.
