Sales Forecasting & Production Scheduling

Problem

Sales forecasting of a Woodmark client was meant to be a key component in scheduling production at three manufacturing plants. Instead, untimely and incomplete sales forecasts that did not reference historical purchasing trends by customers made production scheduling a hit-or-miss affair. The forecasting process involved circulating numerous Microsoft Excel spreadsheets via email and having each sales rep update. Creating a thorough and complete forecast was labor intensive and thus done infrequently.

Problem Impact

• Plant manufacturing inefficiencies resulting in:
• Under-supply followed by over-supply
• Increased machine reconfiguration
• Lost production time
• Excess overtime for plant labor
• Production of the wrong products
• Increased product scrap

Woodmark Solution

• Historical sales by customer, by product
• Monthly sales pipeline forecast
• YTD performance-against-plan
• Adjustments based on judgment of experienced users

In addition, this information was also useful to executive management for creating next year’s plan. The Woodmark solution also integrated with existing reporting mechanisms to speed distribution of revised production schedules.

Return on Project Investment

• Increased production efficiency
• Improved forecast accuracy
• Enhanced customer satisfaction