Demand management practices: A look at the South African food and beverage industry

Demand Management (DM) is characterized as the process of managing an organization's demand in order to deliver the right product at the right time to the right customer. This study explored DM practices by reviewing, analysing and evaluating their application in the South African manufacturing industry in general, and particularly in the food and beverage industry. The study's findings are intended to benefit business as well as academia. A quantitative method was used during the study with 79 responses collected through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included five sections: General Information, Inventory Management (IM) Practices, Forecasting Practices, Capacity Planning and Outcomes of Practices Used. Validity and reliability were verified using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. An inter-item correlation matrix was carried out to assess the impact that the different practices have on each other while the linear by linear association the using Chi-square test assessed the impact that each construct had on DM. The findings of this study revealed that all the constructs had been inter-associated and had a vast courting with each other in addition to a full-size relation to DM. Most of the practices noted in the literature have been applied in organisations. However, even though they had been effective, they are not always efficient. In different words, firms have been capable to do the right job and attain their targets to maximize income and meet demand. While this used to be effective, organisations have been then again failing to minimise losses as their manufacturing costs were nonetheless many products were spoiled due to the length of time earlier than being bought. This generated much waste, which could have been avoided if more efficient DM practices had been followed.