Supply Chain Planning
The complex nature of managing supply chain activities, with its multitude of relationships and processes, requires planning—one of the key functional areas of supply chain management (SCM). Given these demands, supply chain planners must focus on finding the right balance in staffing and cost management, as well as optimize the supply chain strategy, staff development, data maturity, technology support, and the overall planning process. Plans to meet demand need to be driven by an organization’s business model and then customized for each element in the supply chain, be it by improving performance through technology or by planning for sustainability.

How Top Performers Improve Forecast Accuracy in Supply Chain Planning
This article draws on APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking? data in Supply Chain Planning to examine what forecast accuracy looks like for top performers and then showcases the practices that those top performers have adopted to achieve that level of performance.
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Learn more about supply chain planning research
Contact MarisaTotal Cost of Supply Chain Planning
Supply Chain Planning Priority: Improve Cross-Functional Collaboration and Processes
Interactive Supply Chain Planning Tune-Up Diagnostic
Supply Chain Risk: Planning for the Future
Key Supply Chain Planning Benchmarks at a Glance
See how your efforts stack up
Use APQC's Supply Chain Planning Assessment to benchmark current state and pinpoint areas to improve
From a functional perspective, every supply chain planner needs to be able to report the impact that their initiatives have on improving supply chain efficiency. Many organizations have never taken a comprehensive look at how their supply chains are performing against competitors. In such cases supply chain benchmarking can unearth opportunities that could save a company millions or tens of millions of dollars.