Blue Yonder Demand Planning Training Course

Course overview

Demand planners are expected to convert volatile sales history, promotions, product changes and market signals into a forecast that procurement, production and distribution teams can act on. Blue Yonder Demand Planning provides the forecasting and collaboration controls to do this at scale, but value depends on planners knowing how to structure demand data, interpret exceptions, apply appropriate forecast adjustments and measure forecast quality. This course addresses the operational gap between using a planning system as a reporting screen and using it to run a disciplined demand-planning cycle.

Participants learn the Blue Yonder Demand Planning workflow from demand data review through statistical forecasting, planner overrides, event and promotion adjustments, consensus review and forecast publication. They work with planning hierarchies, calendars, forecast versions, historical demand, outlier treatment, causal inputs, exception alerts and accuracy measures including MAPE, bias and forecast value add. The course also shows how an approved demand plan connects to supply planning, inventory decisions and S&OP or IBP meetings.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided exercises in a Blue Yonder training environment using realistic product, customer and location data. Participants investigate forecast exceptions, select and compare forecast methods, document override rationale and prepare an agreed demand-plan review. They leave with a completed demand-planning playbook containing an exception-management routine, forecast review checklist, accuracy scorecard design and a practical action plan for applying the process in their own planning cycle.

The course is suited to professionals moving into demand planning as well as experienced planners, supply chain analysts and planning managers who need a consistent, auditable approach to using Blue Yonder Demand Planning across teams.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Navigate Blue Yonder Demand Planning workspaces, planning hierarchies, calendars and forecast versions
• Prepare historical demand data by identifying missing values, outliers, phase-in and phase-out effects
• Generate baseline forecasts using Blue Yonder statistical forecasting methods and parameter settings
• Interpret forecast exceptions and prioritise planner action using alert thresholds and business impact
• Apply documented forecast overrides for promotions, events, customer intelligence and market changes
• Calculate and interpret MAPE, bias, tracking signals and forecast value add by planning level
• Publish an approved demand plan for downstream supply planning and S&OP or IBP review
• Produce a demand-planning playbook with governance roles, review cadence and override controls

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Demand Planners — who must create, review and publish reliable demand forecasts in Blue Yonder
• Supply Chain Planners — who depend on an approved demand plan to balance supply, inventory and capacity
• Forecast Analysts — who investigate forecast accuracy, bias, exceptions and demand drivers
• S&OP or IBP Analysts — who prepare consensus-demand inputs for cross-functional planning reviews
• Planning Managers — who need consistent planner workflows, controls and performance measures across teams
• Inventory and Replenishment Planners — who use demand signals to set replenishment priorities and inventory targets

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic supply chain concepts such as demand, inventory, lead time, product hierarchy and planning periods. Familiarity with spreadsheets and simple forecasting measures, particularly forecast versus actuals and percentage variance, is helpful. Attendees should ideally have access to, or planned responsibility for, a Blue Yonder Demand Planning environment after the course; a training environment is used during delivery. Prior Blue Yonder system experience, coding, statistical modelling expertise and advanced mathematics are not required. Complete beginners should expect to spend time learning both the demand-planning process and the application workflow.

Training methodology

The five-day programme combines instructor-led explanation of demand-planning principles with live Blue Yonder Demand Planning demonstrations and individual system exercises. Participants work through a connected case involving seasonal products, promotions, customer changes and constrained supply. Small groups compare forecast outputs, challenge override decisions and prepare an evidence-based demand review for an S&OP or IBP meeting. Daily debriefs link system actions to inventory, procurement and service consequences. On the final day, each participant converts the case approach into a practical implementation plan and demand-planning playbook.

Course outline

Day 1: Demand planning foundations and Blue Yonder navigation

• Demand-planning cycle from historical data to approved forecast
• Blue Yonder Demand Planning architecture and core planning objects
• Planner workspaces, worksheets and navigation conventions
• Product, customer, location and channel planning hierarchies
• Planning calendars, time buckets and forecast horizons
• Forecast versions, scenarios and data-status controls
• Demand-plan links to inventory, supply planning and S&OP

Workshop: Participants navigate a training demand model and map a selected product-location forecast from source history through to its downstream supply-planning use.

Day 2: Demand history and baseline forecast generation

• Historical demand review by product, location and customer segment
• Missing-data identification and demand-history cleansing rules
• Outlier detection and treatment for abnormal demand observations
• Seasonality, trend, intermittency and demand-pattern classification
• Forecast model selection and statistical forecast parameters
• Baseline forecast generation across multiple planning levels
• Forecast disaggregation, aggregation and hierarchy reconciliation

Workshop: Participants clean a flawed demand-history set, generate alternative baseline forecasts and record the selected model rationale for three demand patterns.

Day 3: Exceptions, causal factors and planner adjustments

• Exception alerts, thresholds and exception-based planning queues
• Prioritising forecast exceptions by revenue, volume and service risk
• Promotion and event adjustments using causal demand inputs
• New-product introductions, substitutions and product lifecycle planning
• Customer intelligence and sales input validation
• Manual override methods, comments and audit-trail requirements
• Scenario comparison and impact assessment before forecast approval

Workshop: Participants resolve an exception queue for a promotion-led demand spike and produce an auditable override log with assumptions, owners and review dates.

Day 4: Forecast performance and consensus demand review

• Forecast accuracy measurement using MAPE and weighted error
• Bias analysis and tracking signals by hierarchy level
• Forecast value add analysis for statistical and adjusted forecasts
• Segmenting accuracy by product lifecycle and demand variability
• Demand-review dashboards and management reporting requirements
• Consensus demand process with sales, marketing, finance and supply
• Demand-plan approval, publication and change-control practices

Workshop: Participants analyse forecast performance by category and region, identify bias causes and prepare a consensus-demand review pack with recommended actions.

Day 5: Operationalising Blue Yonder demand planning

• Weekly and monthly demand-planning operating cadence
• Planner roles, approval rights and segregation of duties
• Forecast freeze windows and late-change escalation rules
• Data-quality controls for master data, history and causal inputs
• Demand-plan handoff to Blue Yonder Supply Planning
• KPI scorecards for accuracy, bias, overrides and planner workload
• Implementation roadmap for adoption in the participant workplace

Workshop: Participants complete a demand-planning playbook and 90-day application plan covering governance, KPIs, exception rules and their first operational improvement.

Tools & standards covered

Blue Yonder Demand Planning, Blue Yonder Supply Planning, Microsoft Excel, ASCM SCOR Digital Standard

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions