Common Mistakes in Planner Coding: Capturing Unforeseen Events in Forecasting for $10M–$100M Companies

Demand planners in $10M–$100M companies frequently apply manual overrides to reflect unforeseen demand variability driven by marketing campaigns, competitor disruptions, or supply constraints.

Override practices may improve forecast accuracy temporarily but introduce downstream planning risk if applied inconsistently.

Overrides applied after demand variability becomes visible introduce lag between event detection and procurement response.

Inventory arrives after peak consumption windows.

Overrides applied independently across SKUs may lead to inconsistent uplift assumptions.

Forecast layers become misaligned.

Baseline consumption should be modeled independently from uplift associated with unforeseen events.

Mixing these components reduces forecast stability.

Overrides may fail to align procurement timing with supplier lead times.

Stockouts may occur during peak demand periods.

Override logic must be reviewed periodically to ensure alignment with demand drivers.

Ungoverned adjustments introduce forecast distortion.

Override-driven inventory accumulation increases working capital volatility associated with fragmented adjustment cycles.

Financial planning becomes less predictable.

For $10M–$100M companies, avoiding override mistakes ensures accurate capture of unforeseen demand variability.

Planner coding must evolve beyond fragmented adjustment cycles to maintain inventory alignment and working capital stability.