COMM 101 Lecture Notes - Demand Forecasting, Consumer Behaviour, Mass Customization

• School: UBC
• Department: Commerce
• Course: COMM 101
• Professor: Jeff Kroeker

Document Summary

Prototyping: design process to approval, working on an idea to perfect it, the first version of the product. Incomplete, not ready yet to sell, some element of the final product, receive feedback. Agenda: demand forecasting, acting on a forecast. Information sharing in a supply chain: the role of distribution channels and intermediaries, mass customization. How do we deal with variance or variability: don"t know what demand will look like tomorrow, weekly, monthly, etc, price fluctuates, oil, transportation (airlines, prediction & forecast some kind of statistics, data, market research, know customer base. What should a forecast tell you: give range, possible numbers and probability of chance happening, never give a single number. Introduce new product: react to trends, what consumers are looking for or not, prototypes, sample one week to one month, organized in same way men, women, children. Sourcing and manufacturing: fabrics arrive, first step marking; minimize waste of cutting; like a puzzle.