The Ten Commandments of the Forecasting Profession

The author highlights key rules that the forecaster should follow to succeed in this profession. The rules include having a love for the profession, avoiding complex algorithms in presentations, not taking the Sales and marketing input at face value, monitoring performance by a metric that can be quantified, involving all the stakeholders in the process, and always keeping an eye open for further improvement. DWAyNE WILDHAGEN |Mr.Wildhagen has28yearsofexperienceworking asaMasterScheduler,Forecast Manager, andManagerofProduction andInventoryControlintwo manufacturingcompanies.He also holds a CPIM(Certificate ofProduction andInventoryManagement) from UWWhitewater with an emphasis on ProductionandOperationsManagement.Healso holdsaCertificateofProductionandInventoryManagement. T T heimportanceofaforecastreally depends on the environment in which you operate. If you are fortunate enough to be in an environment where customer orders coincide with your cycle time, then theforecastis really morefor mid-to long-range planning. However, if you are in an environment like mine, you promise athree-dayship eventhough it takes three months to procure the materials. This is where the forecast ...