The impact of collaborative forecasting in the supply chain management of high technology products

This paper considers the advantages and potential of collaborative forecasting and its impact on supply chain management. The collaboration process brings together information and data resources from various departments of the company and outputs a single integrated forecast. The increased accuracy of this forecast yields benefits to all the aspects of the supply chain, starting from the product procurement and production up to the customer service. The process application is demonstrated using the paradigm of a company that produces and sells high technology products. In this case, the forecasting can not rely entirely on historical data, which may be unavailable or out of date. The results from the adoption of collaborative forecasting show improvement in the inventory, the operational costs, the profits, the product availability and the customer service.