Skip to main content

Demand Consensus Workbench

Version: 1.0
Date: September 7, 2025
Author: Product Team
Status: Draft

1. Feature Name​

Demand Consensus Workbench

2. Objective & Purpose​

To provide an interactive, collaborative workspace for the Demand Review meeting. The primary objective is to transform the meeting from a debate over conflicting spreadsheets into a fast, data-driven session to create and formally approve a single, agreed-upon Unconstrained Demand Plan.

3. Target Users​

  • S&OP Lead ("Sarah"): Facilitates the consensus-building process.
  • Demand Planning Team: Owns the statistical baseline forecast.
  • Sales Leadership ("Maria"): Owns the sales/commercial forecast.
  • Finance Representative: Provides input on revenue and margin implications.

4. Functional Requirements​

4.1. Data Sources & Logic​

  • The workbench ingests three key data series from the PostgreSQL Operational Data Store:
    1. Historical Sales Data
    2. Statistical Baseline Forecast (generated by ChainAlign)
    3. Sales/Commercial Forecast (ingested from CRM or sheets)
  • It calculates the variance (in units, %, and financial impact) between the statistical and sales forecasts in real-time.

4.2. UI Components & Widgets​

  • 4.2.1. Interactive Multi-Line Graph (The Core Visual):

    • Purpose: To provide a single, shared view of all demand signals.
    • Implementation: A time-series chart displaying four lines:
      1. Historical Sales (solid, historical data)
      2. Statistical Baseline (dotted line, for reference)
      3. Sales Forecast (dashed line, for reference)
      4. Consensus Unconstrained Plan (a solid, user-adjustable line that represents the final decision)

  • 4.2.2. Variance Analysis Pane:

    • Purpose: To automatically focus the team's attention on the most significant disagreements.
    • Implementation: A table or set of cards that highlights the top 5 largest variances between the statistical and sales forecasts, broken down by product family and region.

  • 4.2.3. Financial Impact Summary:

    • Purpose: To ensure every adjustment is understood in financial terms.
    • Implementation: A set of KPI cards (Projected Revenue, Projected Gross Margin) that update in real-time as the Consensus Unconstrained Plan line is adjusted by the user.

  • 4.2.4. "Lock Consensus" Button & Modal (The "Consensus Lock-In Protocol"):

    • Purpose: To formally capture the final decision and the rationale behind it.
    • Implementation: A facilitator-controlled button that, when clicked, opens a confirmation modal. This modal requires the user to enter the Key Assumptions & Rationale for the final plan before it can be locked.

5. User Journey​

  1. The S&OP team enters the Demand Review meeting and opens the Demand Consensus Workbench.
  2. The facilitator ("Sarah") uses the Variance Analysis Pane to direct the conversation: "Team, the biggest gap is in Q4 for the 'Widget Pro Max'. The sales forecast is 20% higher than the statistical baseline. Let's discuss why."
  3. The team debates the variance, informed by AI insights about a planned promotion. They collaboratively adjust the Consensus Unconstrained Plan line on the graph, watching the Financial Impact Summary update with each change.
  4. Once agreement is reached, Sarah clicks the "Lock Consensus" button, documents the rationale in the modal ("Consensus is 15% above baseline due to the Q4 marketing campaign..."), and confirms.
  5. The Consensus Unconstrained Plan line on the graph becomes non-editable (frozen), and the system logs the decision, making this locked plan the official input for the Supply Review.

6. Dependencies​

  • Validated Historical Sales and Sales/Commercial Forecast data from the Intelligent Data Ingestion Engine.
  • A generated Statistical Baseline Forecast.
  • The AI Insight Engine to provide contextual prompts about variances.
  • The Decision Log service to record the output of the "Consensus Lock-In Protocol".