ROLE OF FORECASTING IN THE ORGANIZATION

• Benefits and its impact on supply chain, management decisions, financial plans
• Responsibilities/Accountability
• Consensus development and management support
• Relationship to other decision and planning processes
• Cross-function participation and involvement

DATA MANAGEMENT AND DATA CLEANING

• Data identification and definition
• Structure of time series data
• Data collection and analysis
• Identifying and adjusting for anomalies

FORECAST ERROR MEASUREMENT

• Importance of error measurement and analysis
• Sources and remediation of error
• Interpretation and application of error metrics
• Mean Absolute % Error (MAPE)
• Weighted Mean Absolute % Error (WMAPE)
• Error analysis and cost of error)

HOW TO FORECAST WITH TIMES SERIES MODELS – THE MOST WIDELY USED METHOD OF FORECASTING

• Importance of pattern identification
• Time series model development
• When to use time series models
• Advantages and disadvantages of time series
• Event adjustments and when to use
• Underlying assumptions
• Widely used time series methods – averages, naive model, exponential smoothing, decomposition, trend, seasonal, and other time series methods

REGRESSION ANALYTICS – FORECASTING AND EVALUATING CAUSES OF VARIATION IN DEMAND

• An Overview of Regression Analysis
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Application in estimating effects of promotions, pricing, advertising, and other program actions

NEW PRODUCT FORECASTING – FORECASTING OVER LONGER TIME PERIODS WITH GREATER UNKNOWNS

• Challenges of New Product Forecasting
• Product lifecycle structure and estimation
• Qualitative forecasting methods
• Overview of Quantitative and Qualitative forecasting methods
• Expected error and accuracy