Top-down and bottom-up planning

Forecasting is a structured estimate for a defined decision, horizon and level of detail. This guide introduces top-down and bottom-up planning and shows where it fits in a practical planning cycle.

Practitioner lens

Before applying top-down and bottom-up planning, state the unit, time bucket, planning level and horizon. Forecasts with different definitions are not comparable, even when their charts look similar.

First experiment

State the units, time bucket and demand definition alongside every chart or score.

This is an original educational brief. It is a starting point for discussion, not a claim that one technique fits every supply chain.