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Vikram Patil (Patil), Marketing Manager of Tera Air Cooler Manufacturing,
Hyderabad, was going through the sales figures of the company products. He found
that there was a significant variation between the sales forecasts and the
actual sales figures. As a result, inventory management was becoming a problem.
He began studying the past forecasts and sales figures to understand whether
this was a one-time occurrence or it had been a regular feature. He found that
in the last three years, the forecasts were always at variance with the actual
sales figures. He then started analyzing the reasons for this, but, he failed to
understand why the forecasts were off target so consistently.
In the mean time, he got a call from Anil Deshpandey (Deshpandey), Production
Manager asking him about the forecasts for the next six months. Patil told him
that it would take some time for him to give the figures because he was thinking
of making certain improvements in the forecasting process. Taking this to be an
admission, that something was wrong in the way sales were being forecasted by
the marketing department, Deshpandey immediately expressed his feelings and
narrated the problems his department had been facing because of inaccurate
forecasts.
When the demand was higher than the forecasts, he had to increase production at
very short notice, and it was extremely difficult to make arrangements for it.
It also involved additional costs towards workers'overtime...
Please note:
This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.
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