Forecasting and Demand Planning

Most businesses are not able to plan ahead without some educated guess what the future will bring. Assessing future developments and action them is vital for every company. Forecasting is the process of making statements about events whose actual outcomes (typically) have not yet been observed. A example is estimation for some variable of interest at some specified future date. Prediction is a similar, but more general term. Some very handy Principles summarize useful knowledge about forecasting so that it can be used by researchers, practitioners, and educators. They're devoted to improving decision making by furthering scientific forecasting. Forecasting is used in demand planning in manufacturing, setting the directions for production and procurement. It is also used in supply chain forecasting and sales & operations planning (S&OP). In most companies the forecasting process is not only about the numbers, but also a means to reach consensus with stakeholders.