2. System analysis

Supply/demand managers, marketing forecasters and marketing planning managers the world over regularly face the same problems:

• stormy meetings, where whoever holds the power ends up winning the decision... ;

• periodic revisions of figures, contradicting each other in terms of trends, and creating entropic and delicate movements in resources at factories and suppliers (the "Buldwip Effect" to boot); the excuse often being vague and unverifiable;

• changes in forecasting tool parameters without, as a result of routine, knowing exactly why and how this coefficient cascades down to other parameters. This phenomenon is mitigated to some extent by the use of simulations, but the collateral damage (failure to take account of events in gestation) caused by reassuring...