How is demand sensing different from demand forecasting?

Demand sensing and demand forecasting serve different but complementary roles in supply chain planning.

Demand forecasting typically operates over a longer horizon — weeks to months — and relies heavily on historical sales patterns, seasonality, and trend analysis to build a baseline plan. It answers the question: what do we expect demand to be over the coming period?

Demand sensing operates over a much shorter horizon — days to two weeks — and focuses on detecting deviations from that plan using real-time signals. It answers a different question: what is actually happening right now, and how should we adjust?

Think of it this way: forecasting sets the course, and demand sensing makes the real-time course corrections. Flowlity combines both in a single platform — the probabilistic engine builds the baseline forecast and continuously adjusts it with real-time sensing, so planners work from one unified view rather than reconciling two separate outputs.