Manufacturing product file

Warburtons improves forecasting accuracy

28-Aug-2017 - Last updated on 29-Aug-2017 at 08:53 GMT

Warburtons has boosted the accuracy of its sales forecasts by introducing a new IT system

Warburtons has increased the accuracy of its sales forecasts from 79% to 86%, following the replacement of its ageing IT systems, with demand and promotional planning software from specialist vendor FuturMaster. The project is expected to provide savings of £430,000 over two years.

“Given that we produce more than 2M wax-wrapped loaves, wraps, crumpets, pancakes and bread rolls every day, a 7% increase in forecast accuracy is a massive achievement,” says Iain Bishop, senior commercial forecast manager at Warburtons.

“We can see exactly how many loaves will be required by every retailer for the next day, week or month.”

The software determines what every retailer will be ordering in two days’ time, usually over a two-year horizon. It then breaks down the total volumes for different products or regions so that operations are more efficiently managed for just-in-time deliveries.

Just-in-time deliveries

Using FuturMaster’s ‘portfolio forecasting’ tool in 2016, Warburtons can now project up to five years ahead and see what improvements and savings can be made.

“The IT systems previously in place were proving too cumbersome for our fast-growing business,” says Bishop.

“The software allows us to very quickly analyse whether a particular promotion is realistic or not and see any resulting sales uplift.”