For modern produce operations, supply forecasting isn’t just a planning tool, it’s a competitive advantage. Having the right supply forecasting system in place prepares your company to protect margins, make the most of market peaks, and ensure reliable supply to customers. An industry-specific ERP software can offer effective supply forecast modeling for the unique needs of produce, so that a bad forecast doesn’t break your year.
How to Build Up Your Supply Forecasting Muscle
- Use reliable data for accurate supply planning in produce.
- Separate baseline from market events.
- Compare your forecast to actuals.
- Treat forecasting as an ongoing cycle.
Reliable data drives accurate supply planning.
Having real-time data that syncs with field activity, harvest updates, inventory movement, and operational inputs is a must – especially in an industry with everchanging customer demands, operational conditions, and market volatility. You need the right inputs to get accurate supply planning outputs, and a strong ERP system brings together the latest intel from the field, warehouse and/or suppliers to help you effectively plan, schedule labor, harvest, and move product quickly.
Clearer supply visibility protects margins.
From your standard run rate to your make-or-break seasonal and promotional peaks, the right forecasting framework ensures that you always have a complete picture of your supply position. Avoid situations that cost you time, money, and trust, from plowing under a crop to shorting customers, to make the most out of each growing season.
Forecast-to-actual gaps reveal profit risks.
Understanding the reasons for the gaps between your supply forecast and actuals points you toward the missing data or faulty assumptions that can be corrected to get your company back on track. By breaking down the factors that often lead to gaps, like inaccurate time-to-harvest estimates or field-to-warehouse travel times, you can set your organization on the road to success.
Ongoing forecasting improves decisions.
Giving your team members the same forecasting playbook to work and learn from assures stronger team performance. Make sure that key functions, like grower relations, agronomy, customer service, sales, accounting, and marketing are regularly meeting to discuss the forecast and to break down its impact on both day-to-day operations and near-term planning. Ensuring an open and candid exchange of information and its impacts will lead to better decision-making going forward.
Ready to get better supply forecasting today?
Explore how Famous ERP’s Supply Forecasting can transform the way your company manages resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes supply forecasting in Famous ERP different?
There are two key differences when choosing Famous ERP for your supply forecasting. First, Famous ERP is designed to give you a true cost, perpetual inventory view of your product, customer, and logistics data. Where other produce ERP software systems sync once a day or even less often, you may be making crucial decisions off delayed or incorrect data. Second, Famous ERP is purpose-built exclusively for produce operators – our supply forecasting model for row crops is built around the fundamentals of your industry, like harvest timing, projected product size, and grower and shipping logistics. That way, you’re not trying to retrofit your supply forecast from a system built for shelf stable or value-added products.
How does Famous ERP build its forecasts?
Famous ERP uses its own battle-tested model for produce supply forecasting. The model takes both your historical data and custom inputs based on your unique business conditions to develop a robust and accurate supply forecast. Plus, we offer forecast v. actuals reporting so you can continue to improve the accuracy of your future forecasting.
How does my company’s know-how fit in?
At Famous, we know that your team has years of field and operational experience, plus a keen knowledge of your customers’ preferences and buying habits. In the Famous ERP Supply Forecasting workflow, you can upload your company’s business rules and expertise across six key dimensions – harvest curve, size curve, supply forecast characteristics, commodity specs, grower logistics, and business operations – so your take your hard-earned know-how can yield even more accurate supply forecasts.