Expert to Guide a Supply Chain Forecasting Transformation

An F200 materials science company was revamping forecasting processes—including market, demand planning, analytics, and core skills—but did not have any forecasters on its current team. The Deputy Vice President of Marketing and Innovation reached out to Business Talent Group (BTG) looking for a forecasting expert who had previously run a forecasting group and could identify best-in-class processes, validate current thinking, and identify areas of improvement.

BTG provided a former president of an industrial goods company with extensive experience taking both a commercial and operational approach to market dynamics, competitive intel, pricing impact and historical data, manufacturing process, and lead time to effectively run forecasting functions and groups. A hands-on leader, he had previously built predictive analytics and was skilled at identifying core sets of talent.

The consultant was brought on to help in three key ways:

• Identify the core set of talent to run the group and help advise on training of internal people
• Provide input on systems and processes, including how to design the system forecast process
• Help the team think about different ways to do forecasting and identify current missing pieces in their process