In recent decades, we have seen the pace of launching of new products by companies accelerate, making the life cycle increasingly shorter and the portfolio to be managed wider. This is, in itself, a great challenge for the management of Marketing, which needs to develop increasingly sophisticated mechanisms to manage the life cycle of products and control the portfolio effect within their brands.
Supply chain management also suffers a tremendous impact, as it needs to enable new inputs and suppliers, adapt the production and distribution process, anticipate new and more unstable demands, among other difficulties that result from this process. In the research we conducted on planning in Supply Chain 2015, on the basis of which I commented yesterday on the external integration between companies, we deal specifically with the introduction of new products and how the supply chain leaders of companies dealt with it.
Despite being a common practice and with major impacts throughout the supply chain, launching products is still seen as a kind of “lottery” for 54% of companies, who responded that they did not even make a sales forecast, basing the launch on a pre-established goal (in general, it was the number that “made” the launch possible!). Of those who claimed to perform a demand forecast, 41% said that the error is greater than 50% or that they simply do not measure the accuracy of the forecast.
Certainly, making sales forecasts for launches is a greater challenge than for products in more advanced stages of their life cycle. However, there are quantitative and qualitative techniques that consider whether the products are additions to the portfolio or innovations, leading to better results than the simple “feeling” of the product development area. Furthermore, the difficulty should not serve as an excuse for not facing the problem.
More aggravating is the fact that 39% of companies do not have any processes or tools for assessing and managing the risk associated with launching their new products, increasing chain reaction time and costs associated with the necessary post-launch adjustments.
With this data, it is not surprising that no less than 30% of the companies surveyed stated that they did not have mechanisms for monitoring new products launched. That's right: 30%! Does it seem normal that one third of large Brazilian companies do not monitor the performance of their launches? I do not think!
Reference
https://ilos.com.br/web/analise-de-mercado/relatorios-de-pesquisa/planejamento-no-supply-chain/
Leonardo Julianelli
https://ilos.com.brExecutive Partner of ILOS. Graduated in Production Engineering from EE/UFRJ, Master in Business Administration from COPPEAD/UFRJ with extension at EM Lyon, France, and PhD in Production Engineering from COPPE/UFRJ. He has several articles published in periodicals and specialized magazines, being one of the authors of the book: “Sales Forecast: Organizational Processes & Qualitative and Quantitative Methods”. His research areas are: Demand Planning, Customer Service in the Logistics Process and Operations Planning. He worked for 8 years at CEL-COPPEAD / UFRJ, helping to organize the Logistics Teaching area. In consultancy, he carried out several projects in the logistics area, such as Diagnosis and Master Plan, Sales Forecast, Inventory Management, Demand Planning and Training Plan in companies such as Abbott, Braskem, Nitriflex, Petrobras, Promon IP, Vale, Natura, Jequití, among others. As a professor, he taught classes at companies such as Coca-Cola, Souza Cruz, ThyssenKrupp, Votorantim, Carrefour, Petrobras, Vale, Via Varejo, Furukawa, Monsanto, Natura, Ambev, BR Distribuidora, ABM, International Paper, Pepsico, Boehringer, Metrô Rio , Novelis, Sony, GVT, SBF, Silimed, Bettanin, Caramuru, CSN, Libra, Schlumberger, Schneider, FCA, Boticário, Usiminas, Bayer, ESG, Kimberly Clark and Transpetro, among others.
