Organizing the Forecasting Department

ORGANIZING THE FORECASTING DEPARTMENT By Larry Lapide (This is an ongoing column in The Journal, which is intended to give a brief view on a potential topic of interest to practitioners of business forecasting. Suggestions on topics that you would like to see covered should be sent via email to llapide@amrresearch.com. Ed) Throughout the years that I have been giving presentations on demand forecasting I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking me: How does one organize a forecasting department? I usually discuss this aspect as part of my tutorial on designing a forecasting process for The Institute of Business Forecasters’ annual sessions — because the success of the process ultimately hinges on the performance of the forecasting department and its staff. Unfortunately, however, I don’t have a standard pat answer for how to organize a department because there is no one way that works best. A combination of skills, organization, and corporate culture form the cocktail that drives the success of any forecasting department. WHAT FORECASTING SKILLS ARE NEEDED? First and foremost the success of a forecast department depends on its people. I frequently advise people not to staff ...