Forecasting and Material Planning - Are formal procedures required?

[stlwtrs]

My organization does not have formal procedures for forecasting and material planning. I understand the reasoning because much of the overall process is based on individual analysis which would be difficult to put into a procedured unless the procedure was written at such as high level that it did not provide any value to the organization. We have controls in place to monitor the activity and systematic controls to elevate any issues so my question is whether procedures are necessary? I am very interested in hearing how your ogranizations have handled similiar situations. We are a ISO TS16949 certified.

Thank you in advance for your input.

 

[Marc]

By "formal procedure(s)", do you mean documented procedures?

 

[AndyN]

When you say "formal procedures", you mean a written document, right? You have formal procedure right now, but maybe not documented. Most organizations I know leave this to competent, experienced planners and it's not necessary to write it down. What others do may not be the whole story, because they may be consistently having delivery/capacity issues, even if they do have a written procedure.

 

[stlwtrs]

Your assumptions were correct, I was looking for advice on having formal "Documented" procedures. If we have issues in the future that may change the need for documented procedures, but at this time it sounds like this is generally left up the expert planners. Thank you for the input, it is sincerely appreciated.