Forecasting

Operations Management
by
R. Dan Reid & Nada R. Sanders
2nd Edition © Wiley 2005
Decisions that Need Forecasts
 Which markets to pursue?
 What products to produce?
 How many people to hire?
 How many units to purchase?
 How many units to produce?
 And so on……
Common Characteristics of
Forecasting
 Forecasts are rarely perfect

 Forecasts are more accurate for

aggregated data than for individual
items

 Forecast are more accurate for shorter

than longer time periods
Forecasting Steps
 What needs to be forecast?
 Level of detail, units of analysis & time horizon
required
 What data is available to evaluate?
 Identify needed data & whether it’s available
 Select and test the forecasting model
 Cost, ease of use & accuracy
 Generate the forecast
 Monitor forecast accuracy over time
Types of Forecasting Models
 Qualitative (technological) methods:
 Forecasts generated subjectively by the
forecaster

 Quantitative (statistical) methods:

 Forecasts generated through mathematical
modeling
 Qualitative Methods
Type Characteristics Strengths Weaknesses
Executive A group of managers Good for strategic or One person's opinion
opinion meet & come up with new-product can dominate the
a forecast forecasting forecast

Market Uses surveys & Good determinant of It can be difficult to

research interviews to identify customer preferences develop a good
customer preferences questionnaire

Delphi Seeks to develop a Excellent for Time consuming to

method consensus among a forecasting long-term develop
group of experts product demand,
technological
changes, and
Statistical Forecasting
 Time Series Models:
 Assumes the future will follow same patterns as
the past

 Causal Models:
 Explores cause-and-effect relationships
 Uses leading indicators to predict the future
 E.g. housing starts and appliance sales
 Composition
of Time Series Data
 Data = historic pattern + random
variation
 Historic pattern may include:
 Level (long-term average)
 Trend
 Seasonality
 Cycle
Time Series Patterns
Methods of Forecasting the Level
 Naïve Forecasting
 Simple Mean
 Moving Average
 Weighted Moving Average
 Exponential Smoothing
Time Series Problem
Determine forecast for Period Orders
periods 11 1 122
 Naïve forecast 2 91
3 100
 Simple average
4 77
 3- and 5-period moving 5 115
average 6 58
 3-period weighted moving 7 75
average with weights 0.5, 8 128
0.3, and 0.2 9 111
10 88
 Exponential smoothing
11
with alpha=0.2 and 0.5
Time Chart of Orders Data

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Naïve Forecasting
Next period forecast = Last Period’s
actual:

Ft 1  At
Simple Average (Mean)
Next period’s forecast = average of all
historical data

At  At 1  At  2  .............
Ft 1 
n
Moving Average
Next period’s forecast = simple average
of the last N periods

At  At 1  .........  At  N 1
Ft 1 
N
The Effect of the Parameter N
 A smaller N makes the forecast more
responsive
 A larger N makes the forecast more
stable
Weighted Moving Average

Ft 1  C1 At  C2 At 1  .........  C N At  N 1
where
C1  C2  .........C N  1
 Exponential Smoothing
It is based on the assumption that the most recent
data is better indicator of future trends than past data

Ft 1  At  1   Ft
where
0  1
The Effect of the Parameter 
 A smaller  makes the forecast more
stable
 A larger  makes the forecast more
responsive
 Time Series Problem Solution

Simple Simple Weighted Exponential Exponential

Naïve Simple Moving Moving Moving Smoothing Smoothing
Period Orders (A) Forecast Average Average (N=3) Average(N=5) Average (N=3) ( = 0.2) ( = 0.5)
1 122 122 122
2 91 122 122 122 122
3 100 91 107 116 107
4 77 100 104 104 102 113 104
5 115 77 98 89 87 106 91
6 58 115 101 97 101 101 108 103
7 75 58 94 83 88 79 98 81
8 128 75 91 83 85 78 93 78
9 111 128 96 87 91 98 100 103
10 88 111 97 105 97 109 102 107

11 88 97 109 92 103 99 98
Forecast Accuracy
 Forecasts are rarely perfect
 Need to know how much we should rely on
our chosen forecasting method
 Measuring forecast error:
Et  At  Ft
 Note that over-forecasts = negative errors
and under-forecasts = positive errors
 Tracking Forecast Error
Over Time
 Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD):
 A good measure of the actual error
MAD 
 actual  forecast
in a forecast n

Mean Square Error (MSE):

 actual - forecast
 2

 Penalizes extreme errors MSE 

n

 Tracking Signal
Exposes bias (positive or negative)  actual - forecast 
 TS 
MAD
 Accuracy & Tracking Signal Problem: A company is comparing the
accuracy of two forecasting methods. Forecasts using both methods are
shown below along with the actual values for January through May. The
company also uses a tracking signal with ±4 limits to decide when a
forecast should be reviewed. Which forecasting method is best?

Method A Method B
Month Actual F’cast Error Cum. Tracking F’cast Error Cum. Tracking
sales Signal Error Signal
Error
Jan. 30 28 2 2 2 28 2 2 1

Feb. 26 25 1 3 3 25 1 3 1.5
March 32 32 0 3 3 29 3 6 3
April 29 30 -1 2 2 27 2 8 4
May 31 30 1 3 3 29 2 10 5

MAD 1 2
MSE 1.4 4.4
Adjusting for Seasonality
 Calculate the average demand per season
 E.g.: average quarterly demand
 Calculate a seasonal index for each season of
each year:
 Divide the actual demand of each season by the
average demand per season for that year
 Average the indexes by season
 E.g.: take the average of all Spring indexes, then
of all Summer indexes, ...
Adjusting for Seasonality
 Forecast demand for the next year & divide
by the number of seasons
 Use regular forecasting method & divide by four
for average quarterly demand
 Multiply next year’s average seasonal demand
by each average seasonal index
 Result is a forecast of demand for each season of
next year
 Seasonality problem: a university wants to develop forecasts for
the next year’s quarterly enrollments. It has collected quarterly
enrollments for the past two years. It has also forecast total
enrollment for next year to be 90,000 students. What is the
forecast for each quarter of next year?

Quarter Year 1 Seasonal Year 2 Seasonal Avg. Year3

Index Index Index
Fall 24000 26000
Winter 23000 22000
Spring 19000 19000
Summer 14000 17000
Total 90000
Average
 Seasonality Problem: Solution

Quarter Year 1 Seasonal Year 2 Seasonal Avg. Year3

Index Index Index
Fall 24000 1.20 26000 1.24 1.22 27450
Winter 23000 1.15 22000 1.05 1.10 24750
Spring 19000 0.95 19000 0.90 0.93 20925
Summer 14000 0.70 17000 0.81 0.76 17100
Total 80000 4.00 84000 4.00 4.01 90000
Average 20000 21000 22500
Casual Models
 Often, leading indicators hint can help
predict changes in demand
 Causal models build on these cause-
and-effect relationships
 A common tool of causal modeling is
linear regression:
Y  a  bx
Linear Regression
 Identify dependent (y) and
independent (x) variables
b
 XY  X  Y  Solve for the slope of the
 X 2  X  X 


line
b
 XY  n X Y

 X  nX
2 2

 Solve for the y intercept

a  Y  bX
 Develop your equation for
the trend line
Y=a + bX
 Linear Regression Problem: A maker of golf shirts has been
tracking the relationship between sales and advertising dollars. Use
linear regression to find out what sales might be if the company
invested $53,000 in advertising next year.

b
 XY  n X Y
Sales $ Adv.$ XY X^2 Y^2
 X  nX 2 2
(Y) (X)
1 130 48 4240 2304 16,900 30282  451.25147.25
b  3.58
2 151 52 7852 2704 22,801 10533  451.25
2

3 150 50 7500 2500 22,500 a  Y  bX  147.25  3.5851.25

4 158 55 8690 3025 24964 a  -36.20
5 153.85 53 Y  a  bX  -36.20  3.58x
Y5  -36.20  3.5853  153.54
Tot 589 205 30282 10533 87165
Avg 147.25 51.25
Factors for Selecting a
Forecasting Model
 The amount & type of available data
 Degree of accuracy required
 Length of forecast horizon
 Presence of data patterns
Forecasting Software
 Spreadsheets
 Microsoft Excel, Quattro Pro, Lotus 1-2-3
 Limited statistical analysis of forecast data
 Statistical packages
 SPSS, SAS, NCSS, Minitab
 Forecasting plus statistical and graphics
 Specialty forecasting packages
 Forecast Master, Forecast Pro, Autobox, SCA