Forecasting Errors in the Consumers' Products Industry

FORECASTING ERRORS IN THE CONSUMERS PRODUCTS INDUSTRY Forecasters always look for industry norms of forecasting errors to see how they are doing — better than, worse than or same as the industry. The industry norms are averages of forecasting errors of different companies in the same industry. If a company is doing worse than the industry, then something has to be done to bring it up. If it is already at the par or doing better than that, then it may like to improve further. Then the question is by how much. The ‘Best in Class’ forecasting errors may have the answer. If a company has just started the forecasting function or in the process of setting it up, then the industry norms will help in deciding what it should be targeting at. This article gives the industry norms of forecasting errors in the Consumer Products industry, as well as the ‘Best in Class’ forecasting errors, based on the survey of forecasters who attended the Forecasting Forum of Best Forecasting Practices Conference in Chicago in April 2003. Among all the issues in forecasting, forecasting errors are most difficult to get a handle on. There are many reasons for that. To begin with, different companies ...