Innovation is key to staying relevant. Without innovation, businesses often stagnate and consumers flock to their rivals, while external market forces may strangle the life from companies who insist on observing outdated procedures or models. Consequently, more businesses are adopting innovation management techniques as a strategy for continuous service improvement.

What Is Innovation Management?

In simple terms, innovation management is the process of systematically creating new ideas, approaches, or products, from concept to implementation, and utilising these to develop and grow the business.

There are four stages in innovation management:

1. Generating: brainstorming and seeking employees’ input to identify new ideas and concepts.
2. Capturing: recording and presenting ideas so they can be shared with stakeholders.
3. Evaluating: discussing, analysing, and interrogating ideas to ensure they meet the organisation’s needs.
4. Prioritising: choosing which ideas will be implemented to optimise resources and time in the business.

Innovation management is most effectively implemented in a collaborative environment in which communication between employees at all levels of seniority is encouraged and facilitated. 

Why Is Innovation Management Important?

• It gives businesses the edge when entering new markets and reinforces their presence in existing markets, which enables them to secure more lucrative opportunities for growth.
• It supports businesses to develop original ideas without unacceptable levels of risk.
• Growth is more achievable, even if the process of creating new concepts isn’t always straightforward.
• It ensures that a product portfolio remains relevant to customers, increasing brand engagement and generating sales.
• Businesses that fail to innovate are at a high risk of failing – even established household names – as they rely on outdated models that are unprofitable or irrelevant to modern consumers.

How Reflex Planning Can Help You To Establish An Innovation Management Strategy

Reflex Innovation Management is an integrated planning tool that supports the introduction of new products, develops collaborative working across businesses, monitors progress, and identifies risk.

Product features:

• Defines your critical path, assigns resources, and generates a detailed project plan.
• Easily configurable to match your businesses processes.
• Integrated Gantt chart for reviews of progress.
• Controlled product launch tools, including dummy products, document management, audit trails, integrated reporting, and project tracking.
• Integrates with demand and capacity planning.

Contact Us To Find Out More

If you would like to find out more about how Reflex Innovation Management could support your business, please contact us today on 0044 1889 508075 or request a free demonstration here.

 

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1. Test Your Product Thoroughly.

Testing is essential to establish how a new product will be received by your target customers, or buyer personas. It allows product designers to take on board positive and negative feedback and make adjustments to ensure that consumer preferences are accommodated when the product goes to mass production.

Bear in mind that a prototype that isn’t quite perfect can provide more useful information about what consumers want than one that ticks all the boxes.

2. Get Ready For A Surge In Sales.

There is little point in launching a new product if your business isn’t prepared to respond to a surge of sales. Excess inventory can be expensive, particularly if your new product fails to attract the necessary level of interest, while shortages lead to delayed order fulfilment which damages your profit and reputation.

Demand forecasting can enable you to plan accurately for your product launch by evaluating sales figures for existing similar products or assimilating data from market research, business intelligence, and product trials.

3. Optimise Your Supply Chains.

Launching a new product can often result in a sudden demand from consumers, so it’s vital that your supply chains are prepped and ready to respond. With Reflex Supply Planning software, you can automate your stock replenishment processes to improve efficiency within your production facility or warehouse, and work proactively with suppliers to ensure a slick supply chain. If supply and demand become unbalanced, you can make informed decisions about how best to reallocate resources to improve fulfilment time and safeguard customer service.

Supply Planning software keeps you abreast of changing consumer demand, so you aren’t faced with damaging stockouts just when your new product is gaining interest.

4. Use Metrics To Monitor Your Performance.

Metrics are vital to enable you to evaluate how your product launch is progressing. Setting goals early, and regularly reviewing them, will provide you with the insight needed to make accurate judgements and alter course if you’re not achieving the minimum number of sales.

5. Implement A Sales And Order Planning Solution For Your Product Launch.

With Reflex Planning’s S&OP platform, your product launch will benefit from:

• A single home for your planning, demand forecasting, and stock optimisation tools.
• Improved efficiencies and cost-savings.
• A modular design, so you only pay for the components you need.
• Fast and easy installation, so you can quickly reap the rewards.
• High-quality support, training, and maintenance.

Contact Reflex Planning To Find Out More

To find out more about our modular demand planning, forecasting, and stock management software, please call us today on +44(0) 1889 508 075 or request a free demonstration to see our solution in action.

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1. Organise Your Data.

Effective demand planning requires ample volumes of data, but it isn’t just historical sales information that can improve the accuracy of your forecasts. Data should be mined from a wealth of sources, internal and external, including purchase orders, market intelligence, promotional information, loyalty card schemes, and consumer trends – in fact, any sources that provide you with an insight into consumers’ thinking and behaviour.

When combined with real-time visibility of inventory and supply chain constraints, data lets you implement actions and improvements that inject agility into your process modelling, thereby improving your responsiveness to emerging growth opportunities.

2. Use A Unified Forecasting Software Platform.

If spreadsheets or outdated IT systems are the basis for your demand planning, it’s time to implement a unified forecasting platform. At Reflex Planning, our demand forecasting software uses cutting-edge forecasting techniques to help you to make informed decisions, reducing your costs while improving value for your customers.

• Transfer order history from your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform.
• Calculate forecasts daily, weekly, or monthly using auto-adaptive calculations.
• Analyse demand or sales history to generate trends for seasonal variations.
• Create profiles to learn from past events, thereby improving forecast accuracy.
• Easily compare products, customers, and markets to provide detailed information about the impact of sales activities on sales and margins.

3. Adopt A Holistic Approach.

Demand planning should never be conducted in isolation. A retrospective look at previous sales data to predict upcoming demand is less likely to generate success than a holistic approach that assimilates information and assumptions from many sources.

Demand planners must consider the overall performance of the business, so they are readied for any unexpected change in circumstances. This helps avoid overordering the wrong inventory or underordering the right inventory. Awareness of forthcoming social media campaigns, for example, is crucial to ensure that the supply chain is primed to deliver products or raw materials to meet anticipated demand. 

4. Learn From Your Mistakes.

Historical order data is a valuable source of information, but it may contain errors made in previous demand forecasts. For example, an inability to supply a customer with the required volume of products may have resulted in the order being fulfilled in two or more shipments: relying on this data would lead to an incorrect demand forecast in future as it did not represent your customer’s actual requirements at the time.

Find Out More About Our Demand Forecasting Software

If you’re committed to improving your business’s efficiency and resource management to become more responsive to the changing demands of the marketplace, get in touch to arrange a free demonstration of our demand forecasting software.

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What’s The Purpose Of Production Scheduling?

The ability to plan or schedule production is closely linked to manufacturing efficiency, since data monitoring and planning allows for timely adjustments that can reduce waste and make better use of human and material resources.

Efficient production scheduling can support sustainable business growth, since it allows manufacturers to make the best possible allocation of resources and processes during company scaling or in changing scenarios.

This will become clearer as we examine the different stages involved in production planning and how they contribute to overall efficiency and productivity.

The stages of production scheduling

1) Planning

The first stage involves accounting for all the elements that you will need to produce your goods. This includes staff, raw materials, equipment, and specific processes. A common pitfall is to view these elements as separate from each other, listing them on Excel spreadsheets as if they were mere inventory. For improved efficiency, you need to have a clear understanding of all elements that are interconnected.

2) Routing

Once you know how all the pieces fit together, the next stage is defining a manufacturing route. This means specifying how materials and components will move along the manufacturing process. To make routing more efficient, you need to incorporate a global perspective that allows you to know where every item is at all times and where it needs to go next. It’s also useful to use systems or tools that make this information available to everyone involved in the process.

3) Scheduling

The objective of scheduling is to create timetables that guarantee demand can be met with the parameters established during planning. Depending on the complexity of your operations, there may be different schedules in place at the same time but at different level. For example, you could have a master production schedule alongside more specific sub-schedules that target processes like assembly or quality control.

To optimise this stage, you should consider more than one manufacturing route so goods can be produced as per schedule if there are unexpected changes along the way. Software that incorporates statistical forecasting methods can come in handy.

4) Dispatch

In the dispatch stage, tasks are assigned (usually ad-hoc) in order to keep the production queue moving. Dispatch decisions can modify the directions outlined in the planning stage, as they have an immediate focus as opposed to the future-oriented nature of planning.

To improve dispatching, you must have access to real-time data and have an alert system in place that notifies you of any deviations from the forecast.

5) Execution

The final stage involves the fulfilment of all processes needed to meet production deadlines and objectives. Optimising execution requires the smooth coordination of management and production teams, as well as access to reliable information, suitable tools, and a skilled workforce.

Unified Forecasting And Production Planning

Unified forecasting software can greatly simplify the process of production scheduling through every stage. The software developed by Reflex Planning can help anticipate demand, spot process inefficiencies, and give you the information needed to make adjustments for optimal production. Get in touch to arrange a free product demo.

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1) Quantitative Forecasting

The quantitative forecasting method makes predictions about future demand based on the analysis of past historical data. Such data can expose seasonal patterns and changing trends that could potentially impact production and sales, and so it can help businesses make data-driven decisions.

Typical quantitative forecasting techniques include the analysis of sales data, web traffic, advertising expenditure and revenue, financial reports, or statistical modelling.

2) Qualitative Forecasting

Qualitative forecasting elaborates predictions about future demand based on the expert opinion of consultants, professionals or employees with ample experience in a given industry. Qualitative forecasting can be carried out by a panel of industry experts and may be complemented by market research.

Typical qualitative forecasting techniques include focus groups, consumer surveys and polls, and the Delphi Method, which questions a group of experts about their individual perceptions of future trends or events.

Practical Differences Between The Two Methods And How They Work Together

The main difference between quantitative and qualitative forecasting methods is that the former relies on objective numerical data, whereas the latter makes projections based on the subjective interpretation of one or more experts. In other words, quantitative forecasting involves number crunching, and qualitative forecasting involves making an educated guess.

This is not to say that one method is superior to the other in all instances, and in many cases both quantitative and qualitative forecasting methods are used side-by-side to produce a broader and more accurate picture of demand trends. Both methods have their pros and cons and both can produce excellent results if used in the right settings or applications. For example, numerical data tends to be seen as more robust and categorical than opinions or estimates, so quantitative forecasting could have more acceptance among stakeholders or board executives.

On the other hand, quantitative methods lack the nuance and insight that a seasoned professional can bring to forecasting. Numerical methods are rather rigid and may not suit the exploration of possibilities, and they can’t be used when estimating demand for a new product, since there’s no historical data to analyse. At the risk of oversimplifying both methods, quantitative forecasting gathers and consolidates real-world data, while qualitative forecasting analyses and interprets this data.

In some cases, the combination of both methods is the most sensible approach to demand forecasting. For example, you could look at historical sales data and targeted population reports to gain insight into how demand for a product has changed over time. Once a trend emerges or you form a hypothesis, you could use qualitative methods like interviews or consumer focus groups to deepen your understanding and make decisions.

Improve Demand Forecasting Accuracy With Specialised Software

Forecasting software can enable a flexible and accurate approach to your demand forecasting strategy. Software solutions like Reflex Planning incorporate a range of advanced quantitative and qualitative forecasting capabilities that can be tailored to suit specific needs and situations.

With demand forecasting software, manufacturers can effortlessly switch between qualitative and quantitative methods to make data-driven decisions that reflect real demand and contribute to business growth. Get in touch today to arrange a free product demo.

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1) (Cautiously) Use The Just In Time (JIT) Strategy

JIT was taboo during the pandemic because of its dependence on extended and inherently weak supply chains. Memories are short, however, and in 2022 Just in Time strategies are making a strong comeback as global supply chains stabilise, even if the trend is now coupled with a continued drive towards re-shoring for essential supplies. When it works as expected, JIT is a system in which materials are delivered or resources are used only as needed, and waste is eliminated. This ‘lean’ approach can be applied to all aspects of business, from manufacturing to accounting. In terms of inventory management, JIT means that inventory is only ordered when it’s needed to meet customer demand. This helps avoid costly storage space and reduces the risk of inventory becoming outdated or obsolete. It does, however, depend on fluid global trade which, as the past two years have shown us, is extremely vulnerable to pandemics, wars, and political events (e.g. Brexit, trade wars etc).

2) Implement a Modular Business Planning Package

To ensure that your business can effectively manage inventory levels and minimise forecasting errors, it’s essential to take a comprehensive and unified approach to business planning. This includes having a system in place that can optimise inventory levels in line with demand, supply, and stock control – not just in your direct facilities, but also across your supply chain. Reflex Planning provides such a solution by offering businesses of all sizes a centralised system to manage all aspects of their inventory. Such planning and forecasting tools will save you valuable time and resources and ultimately help improve your bottom line.

3) Understand Your Supply Chain

Understanding your supply chain and the partner businesses that serve it gives you visibility and insight into every link in the chain. This means knowing where your inventory is coming from, how it’s being transported and where it’s being stored. It also means that you can identify bottlenecks, operational risks, and sources of waste, and take steps to improve efficiency and quality. In addition, by understanding your supply chain, you can develop better relationships with key suppliers and customers, which can lead to better deals and improved communication.

4) Pay Attention To The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule is a business principle that states that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. This simple concept can be applied to inventory management. By focusing on the 20% of products that generate the most sales, businesses can more effectively manage their inventory, forecast product demand, and avoid overstocking or understocking. In addition, the 80/20 Rule can help companies identify slow-moving items and either sell them at a discount or remove them from inventory altogether.

5) Analyse Market Trends and Business Patterns

By identifying patterns in customer demand, you can forecast future sales more accurately and adjust your stock levels accordingly. This will help you avoid stock-outs that can lead to lost sales and dissatisfied customers, while also reducing the amount of money tied up in inventory.

Achieve Tighter Control Over Your Inventory With Reflex Planning

Forecasting and inventory management are essential components for businesses that operate within a supply chain. Still, it can be difficult to control all the moving parts without specialist software. If you’re looking to improve your inventory management, Reflex Planning can help. Our business planning software is designed to streamline the process, save you time and money, and minimise errors. To learn more, call us today for a free product demo.

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What Is Ecommerce Demand Forecasting?

Demand forecasting analyses key market information including past online sales, market trends, and sales cycles to accurately predict which products are likely to be in demand going forward, when demand will be at its highest, and to what extent.

By combining each of these elements, and expanding demand forecasting principles across an entire product range or asset base,  online retail businesses are able to develop a detailed picture of which and how many products to keep in stock in order to fully capitalise on consumer demand while ensuring the best possible use of resources including capital, manufacturing capacity, and marketing expenditure.

For small and mid-sized businesses in particular, demand forecasting is intricately linked in with cash flow planning.

Cash Flow Planning

Once a clear idea of consumer demand for products has been established across a workable timeframe using demand forecasting strategies, Ecommerce businesses can formulate an effective financial resource management strategy based on predicted sales revenues.

For example, if demand forecasting indicates that sales are liable to be low during a particular month of the year, businesses can earmark this moment for a substantial marketing push, or reinvest in promoting products with a greater chance of a sales lift.

Conversely, periods of high demand will necessitate a channelling of resources towards manufacturing during proceeding months in order to fully meet the increase in demand. Using these techniques, Ecommerce businesses can include future revenue in their spending and investment plans, rather than budgeting purely on the basis of existing capital. This process forms the basis of cash flow planning.

Optimising Your Demand Forecasting and Cash Flow Planning Processes

Data collected in the course of demand forecasting and cash flow planning can be continually reanalysed and assessed in response to changing market conditions. This enables businesses to respond proactively, and ultimately become more successful.

As demand forecasting involves a wide range of variables and is often subject to realignments as events shape market change, ecommerce businesses benefit from specialist planning software, such as Reflex Planning, to make informed marketing decisions.

Find Out More

To find out more about the benefits of Reflex Planning for ecommerce retails, please get in touch with one of our service team today.

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1) Accurate Production Planning

In the manufacturing industry, an efficient production cycle is one of the pillars of success. Demand forecasting software puts at your disposal a wealth of information that you can use to make responsive data-driven production decisions for each product line, avoiding the risk of overstocking or undersupply.

2) Better Inventory Management

With a specialised software solution, you can have access to real-time inventory data and other crucial insights in your different trading and supply chain locations. These can help you keep wasted stock to a minimum, cut down on unnecessary storage costs and goods movements, and support optimum supply chain management.

3) Improved Logistics Planning

The best demand forecasting software can improve your supply chain planning efforts. With these solutions, you get a comprehensive view of all factors affecting internal demand planning and logistics, such as different Covid restrictions between EU countries, so you always know what your supply chain capacity is and can optimise the way you allocate resources to meet market demand.

4) Timely Product Development

Having accurate and reliable data at hand can help you plan for growth through new product development. Thanks to the information you get from demand forecasting software, you can determine when it’s the best time to launch a new or seasonal product, ensuring that customer demand is at its peak and that you can cope with it from a logistics point of view.

Although forecasts aren’t 100% accurate, using specialised software can increase your planning and production capacity while supporting stock optimisation and supply chain management. Not only that, but these solutions can reduce friction and redundancies from the manufacturing process, assist you in successful product development, and minimise errors.

At Reflex Planning we’re ready for 2022. Our demand forecasting software has been created to help businesses navigate uncertainty and lay the groundwork for a prosperous year. Does this sound like a good plan? Then get in touch to arrange a free product demo.

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The Challenge of Inventory Management For Cruise Ships

For customers, a multi-day cruise holiday is more than a means of travelling from A to B, and many expect an extensive range of ‘little extras’, without which the establishment would be unfavourably compared to competitors. 

Cruise ships are brimming with commodities that need constant renewal. The product manifests of major cruisers often contain over 12,000 product types, from steaks and sushi, to bed linen, towels, clothing, cleaning products, and tableware. Consequently, inventory management can be extremely challenging, especially as physical analysis and supply forecasting has to be conducted to coincide with overnight resupply stays in port.

From refreshment and toiletries in each cabin for every day at sea, to sufficient drinks in the bar and provisions for daily housekeeping, demand has to be meticulously forecasted in advance. Everything must be available to hand. There is no opportunity to top up your inventory at sea if supplies have been underestimated, and overstocking a cruise ship can be extremely wasteful in terms of space and resources. With many product lines to keep continually restocked at various ports of call, and demand for berths likely to fluctuate throughout the year, efficient inventory management is essential to reinforce your cruise liner’s reputation as a safe and opulent holiday provider.

How Cruise Liner Inventory Management Software Can Yield Profitable Results

There are two facets associated with inventory management in the leisure cruise sector: increasing revenues, by anticipating and managing demand, and optimising delivery schedules – ensuring that all supplies are gathered at port and ready to embark, according to the ship’s itinerary. Understanding the seasonal nature of the industry and taking advantage of spikes in demand is central to effective inventory management.

Pricing

Demand forecasting and inventory management work hand-in-hand, to predict cycles of resource demand at different stages of the cruise and throughout the year, so that prices can be adjusted accordingly. In peak periods, holiday prices can be set to maximise income, while in low season – or when attracting customers back to the liner after the Pandemic – prices can be discounted to ensure greater occupancy. Dynamic pricing is an important tool to control rates according to demand, ensuring that profits are maximised whatever the season.

Stock Control

Cruise ship inventory management software can support a liner in accessing business intelligence, to plan spending on stock, reduce waste and ensure greater control over resource management while at sea. Planning for increased occupancy is essential to ensure that stock levels are maintained in line with demand, avoiding embarrassing stock shortages. Also, effective inventory management can support cruise ship procurement managers to select vendors in different supply destinations based on their reliability, availability, and cost, and ensure each vendor delivers goods to port on time.

Arrange a Free Demo Today

An inventory management system is essential for the smooth operation of any cruise liner. For a free demo to see how it could benefit your business, please get in touch today.

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How Machine Learning Is Changing The Face of Demand Forecasting

When used as part of an advanced demand forecasting platform, such as Reflex Planning, machine learning increases the range and depth of data points available to demand planners when making sales predictions – leading to more accurate and responsive sales forecasts. Rather than depending on a single data source, such as past demand, to make forecasts, a modern software platform will analyse the most relevant trends from multiple sources, including:

• Sales reports and historical financial data
• Marketing polls
• Social media indicators, such as surges in followers, shares, and retweets)
• Weather forecasts
• Customer POS information
• Website reviews
• Marketing campaigns

Machine Learning constantly applies complex algorithms to real time data changes so that demand signals are spotted, patterns are recognised, and complicated relationships are uncovered in large amounts of data (relationships that are easy to miss when plotting demand trends manually). As well as being able to analyse volumes of data far larger or more complex than a human could unaided, ML also – critically – adapts to changing market conditions, even when these happen quickly or with little warning.

Demand Forecasting Models With Machine Learning

Because of its flexibility, ML can be used to produce different demand forecasting models, including new strategies such as:

Predictive Sales Analytics
When combined with statistical methods, ML can deliver more than just estimates of consumer demand, but an understanding of the drivers of sales and predictions of consumer behaviour in different situations.

Demand Sensing
Machine Learning can spot real-time variations in consumer purchasing behaviour, so that businesses can respond promptly to volatile markets. By extracting data from POS systems, warehouses, and external sources of information, ML can determine the importance of each variation in purchasing behaviour, analyse factors, and deliver adjustments to accommodate market volatility.

Ready To Improve The Accuracy of Your Demand Forecasting?

If you’re seeking trustworthy and reliable ways to improve the quality and accuracy of your demand forecasting, get in touch with Reflex Planning for a free demonstration of our industry leading forecasting software. Our end-to-end S&OP software harnesses the latest technology so that you can accurately forecast demand by day, week, or month, and organise and plan your resources for future scenarios. 

Image Source: Pixabay

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