The seasonal dimension

While waiting for my veggie burger to be cooked, I had a chat with the chef of the cafeteria I visit for lunch regularly. He asked me for cheese in my burger and I said no (as usual ;-)). He smiled and said – that’s the new year effect. The cheese consumption in the month of January drops pretty drastically because lot of people have it as part of there new year resolution to eat less fatty food, and it starts picking up again in February returning to normal in a couple of months.

This suggests that incorporating the seasonal dimension in enterprise resource planning can optimize the resources usage and prevent a lot of wastage. Another place where seasonal dimension can play a major role is advertising. Just as important as it is to target the right customer, it is also important to target them at the right time. For example, sticking to the “stay healthy” theme of new year resolution, I believe early January will be the perfect time for exercise machine sellers and fitness club owners to advertise their products and services respectively to the right set of customers. Similarly, it might not be as fruitful for airlines or travel web sites to spend on advertising in January because most of the people they are targeting just had their vacation a few days back.

These scenario show that something like seasonal dimension can play an important role in cost savings. In fact, I believe it is one of those nitty-gritty details, which if considered correctly can make your planning system stand out above the lot.