Innovations in Business Forecasting

When it comes to new product forecasts, some executives would say that it is a frustrating and futile effort due to the lack of data (or minimal data), limited analysis capabilities, and a general uncertainty surrounding a new product launch, not to mention the ever changing and fickle marketplace. A structured analogy approach can be useful in many situations, but certainly not in all new product forecasting efforts. A new “Structured Judgment” approach attempts to improve on human judgment alone by automating the historical data handling and incorporating statistical analysis. However, judgment (domain knowledge) needs assistance to keep the process on track and as objective as possible. The real innovation is in combining structured data with unstructured data using “Sentiment Analysis.” CHARLES W. CHASE, JR. | Mr. Chase is the Chief Industry Consultant and CPG Subject Matter Expert for the Manufacturing and Supply Chain Global Practices at SAS Institute, Inc. He is also the principal solutions architect and thought leader for delivering demand planning and forecasting solutions to improve SAS customers’ supply chain effi ciencies. Prior to that, he worked for various ...