Best Practice Demand Planning Summit: Melinda Benbow

Let’s get to know our Best Practice Demand Planning Summit Speaker, Melinda Benbow. She is the SupplyPlanning Manager of The Body Shop. She will also give an overview of his session; Case Study: Overcoming challenges in New Product introduction and development.

What inspires you to be part of the supply chain sector?

No two days are the same. In supply chain you can implement changes that add value, eliminate waste and improve efficiencies and you can see the benefits of changes to the overall business within a short period of time.

What is the key theme you want people to talk away from your talk?

The importance of collaboration, forward planning and data visibility to inventory management to ensure stock availability to support business targets.

Can you please give us a brief preview of your talk/panel discussion?

My talk will cover such challenges as when products sell very differently during promotions vs baseline forecasts and address the question of how to manage sale’s colleagues expectations. Will also touch on the challenges of NPD launches, dealing with seasonality and product discontinuations in multi site and multi channel businesses across the Retail, Manufacturing and Distribution industries.

What’s the best lesson you’ve learned in your career so far?

Be prepared to ask for advice when faced with road blocks or you have reached a point on a task or project where it is hard to progress. So that you can progress and meet your end goal look at the situation or task without emotion and be prepared to take a step back and revisit the original aim to be able to reset and see the bigger picture to be able to see how to move forward.

What advice can you give to those who are looking at a career in Supply Chain?

Be open to change and look for opportunities that will provide exposure to a wide range of areas within the Supply Chain to build your knowledge and skills base.

About Best Practice Demand Planning Summit

The Best Practice Demand Planning Summit is the ONLY event bringing together demand and supply planners across Australia. Happening this 24-25 March 2020 at the Stamford in Melbourne, this event will tackle creating a benchmark for best practice and an action plan on how to achieve it with improved forecast accuracy, more effective inventory management and a focus on delivering value to the end customer.

The summit will also bring together practical case studies from leading global companies to showcase how people, process and technology contribute to effective planning processes. With interactive round table discussions, panels and countless networking opportunities, demand planners across the country will have the opportunity to share ideas, solutions and forecast the future of their function. Featuring innovations with technology and systems, as well as insights into achieving efficiencies across the planning process, this is the one event for planners you can’t afford to miss.

Catch more of Melinda Benbow on the stage of Best Practice Demand Planning Summit! Register and learn more about this event here.