* Before the redesign project, what factors, processes and behaviors led to the planning problems?

Lack of consensus on forecasts that the departments of sales, marketing, finance and operation all had their own forecasts and they did not trust each other’s numbers.
The lack of formalized process and communication of forecasting was the key reason underlying.

Also, the data most relevant to forecasting was often not accurate or inusable and Leitax had no built-in system to monitor demand planning. Life cycle of certain products was often extended in order to push sales to resellers.

Sell-in rather than sell-through was relied upon.

The other aspect is the industry aspect that digital camera is a rapidly changing industry that new products had to be introduced frequently. These further distorted the forecasting and demand management issue.

* What are the successful elements of the consensus forecasting process that should be maintained in the organization?

Key player such as Fowler who has the capacity to influence the senior leadership in Leitax at the same time Fowler has what it takes to be a successful supply chain professional, the good technical know-how and understanding of this industry and the product.

Before Fowler got started, he obtained buy-in from different functional groups.

There would be 3 forecasts made, one is the top-down forecast from PPS focused on macro economic demand for the product; the other is the bottom-up forecast from sales focused on demand information collected from sales point; the final one is the sale-through forecasts from DMS focused on statistical inference. All these forecasts were well communicated through Excel format and a final consensus forecast would be reached through open-dialogue meeting covering key assumptions and key rates of each forecast result. Final Consensus Forecast would be sent