Title: Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment: demand planning in supply chain management

Authors: Hokey Min, Wen-Bin 'Vincent' Yu

Addresses: James R. Good Chair in Global Supply Chain Strategy, Department of Management, BAA 3008C, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43551, USA. ' School of Management and Information Systems, 312 Computer Science Building, 1870 Miner Circle, Rolla, MO 65409, USA

Abstract: Recognising the value of information sharing among supply chain partners, a growing number of firms have expressed keen interest in jointly forecasting customer demand and co-managing business functions. In particular, such interest sparked the rapid development and implementation of Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) that was proven to be successful in minimising safety stocks, improving order fill rates, increasing sales, and reducing customer response time. Despite increasing popularity, key drivers for the successful development and implementation of CPFR have not been fully understood by practitioners and academicians alike. This paper unveils the invisible challenges and opportunities for adopting and implementing CPFR. Also, it provides an overview of CPFR in comparison to other alternative forecasting techniques such as agent-based forecasting and focus forecasting, while synthesising the past evolutions and future trends of CPFR in a supply chain setting.

Keywords: collaborative planning; forecasting; replenishment; CPFR; supply chain management; SCM; demand planning; information sharing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJITM.2008.015886

International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.7 No.1, pp.4 - 20

Published online: 02 Dec 2007 *

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