Supply Chain Planning and Analytics

Every company must continually wrestle with the problem of deciding the right quantity and mix of products or services that it should produce as well as when and where to produce them. The problem is challenging because the decision must be made with uncertain and conflicting information about future demand, available production capacity, and sources of supply. The decision is in fact a highly complex balancing act, involving tradeoffs along many dimensions - for example, inventory targets vs. customer service levels, older products vs. newer ones, direct customers vs. channel partners - and requiring the compromise of constituents - sales, marketing, operations, procurement, product development, finance, as well as suppliers and customers - with varied objectives.