CH 3 IMEEN
CH 3 IMEEN
Forecasting
Introduction
• Forecasting is the art and science of predicting
the future
• A forecast is a starting point and a base for any
kind of planning and decision making process
• The objective of forecasting is to reduce risk in
decision making
• The survival of a business enterprise depends
on its ability to assess the market/demand
trend with reasonable accuracy a head time
What is Forecasting?
Forecasts are predictions, projections or
estimates of future events or conditions in the
environment in which an enterprise operates.
Or
Forecasts are estimates of occurrence, timing
and magnitude of uncertain future event
What is Forecasting?
Process of predicting
uncertain future event
Underlying basis of ??
all business decisions
Production
Inventory
Personnel
Facilities
What is Forecasting?
The estimates can be
Occurrence of an event
Occurrence time
Magnitude or volume
The purpose of forecasting is to use the best
available information to guide future activities
toward organizational goals.
What is Forecasting?
Forecasting can be used to determine
Demand of product or service
prices or costs
Change of technology
Competitors
Interest rate
Exchange rate
Good forecasts enables managers to plan and
budget for appropriate levels of personnel, raw
materials, capitals, inventory and a lot of other
variables.
Forecasting Time Horizons
Short-range forecast
Up to 3 months
Job scheduling, job assignments, purchasing,
workforce levels, production levels
Medium-range forecast
3 months to 3 years
Sales and production planning, budgeting
Long-range forecast
3+ years
New product planning, facility location,
research and development
Distinguishing Differences
Medium/long range forecasts deal with more
comprehensive issues and support management
decisions regarding planning and products,
plants and processes
Short-term forecasting usually employs different
methodologies than longer-term forecasting
Short-term forecasts tend to be more accurate
than longer-term forecasts
Influence of Product Life Cycle
Product life cycle is the length of time from a product
first being introduced to consumers until it is
removed from the market
A product's life cycle is usually broken down into four
stages: Introduction – Growth – Maturity – Decline
As product passes through its life cycle, forecasts are
useful in projecting
Staffing levels
Inventory levels
Factory capacity
Product Life Cycle
Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Product design and Forecasting critical Standardization Little product
development Product and process Less rapid product differentiation
critical reliability changes – more Cost
Frequent product minor changes minimization
OM Strategy/Issues
Competitive product
and process design improvements and Optimum capacity Overcapacity in
changes options the industry
Increasing stability
Short production Increase capacity of process Prune line to
runs eliminate items
Shift toward product Long production
High production focus runs not returning
costs good margin
Enhance distribution Product
Limited models improvement and Reduce capacity
Attention to quality cost cutting
Product Life Cycle
Introduction Growth Maturity Decline
Best period to increase Practical to change Poor time to change Cost control critical
market share price or quality image image, price, or quality
Company Strategy/Issues
Sales iPods
3 1/2”
Xbox 360 Floppy
disks
Types of Forecasts
Economic forecasts
Address business cycle – inflation rate,
money supply, etc.
Technological forecasts
Predict rate of technological progress
Impacts development of new products
Demand forecasts
Predict sales of existing products and
services
Strategic Importance of
Forecasting
Sudden
Transient Sudden
Fall
Impulse Rise
Forecasting Methods
Delphi Method
Time series causal
Jury of Executive Average
Opinion
Linear Regression
Naïve Method
Weighted Moving
Average
Analogies
Exponential
Market Survey smoothing
Single ES
Double ES
Selection of Forecasting Method
D
t
-1+D
t
-2+D
t-
3 +
...
+Dt
-n
F
t=
n
W eek D em and
1 650 Question: What are the
2 678
3 720
3-week and 6-week
4 785 moving average
5 859 forecasts for demand?
6 920
7 850 Assume you only have 3
8 758 weeks and 6 weeks of
9 892
10 920
actual demand data
11 789 for the respective
12 844 forecasts
Calculating the moving averages gives us:
F
=
t D
w
1
t+
-
1 D
w
2
t+
-
2wD
3
t+
-
3...
+
w
D
nt
-
n
Where: Ft = Forecast of demand for next period, t
Dt = Actual value/demand in period, t
Wt = weighting factor
n
w
i=1
i =1
Weighted Moving Average Problem (1) Data
F4 = 0.5(720)+0.3(678)+0.2(650)=693.4
Weighted Moving Average Problem (2) Data
Weights:
Week Demand
t-1 .7
1 820
2 775 t-2 .2
3 680
4 655 t-3 .1
Weighted Moving Average Problem (2) Solution
F5 = (0.1)(755)+(0.2)(680)+(0.7)(655)= 672
Exponential smoothing (ES)/ Single ES
In the previous methods of forecasting the major
drawback is the need to continually carry a large
amount of historical data
Exponential smoothing is the most used of all
forecasting techniques. It is well accepted for the
following major reasons
Exponential models are relatively accurate
Formulating an exponential model is relatively easy
The user can understand how the model works
Little computation is required to use the model
…Cont'd
In this method, only three pieces of data are needed
to forecast the future: the most recent forecast, the
actual demand that occurred for that forecast period
and smoothing constant alpha(α)
The smoothing constant determines the level of
smoothing and the speed of reaction
The selection of smoothing constant depends upon
the characteristics of demand. High values of α are
more liable to fluctuations in demand. Low values of
α are appropriate for relatively stable demand
…Cont'd
The equation for a single exponential smoothing
forecast is simply
t
F D
t1
1F
t
1
Where:
F t = The exponentially smoothed forecast for period t
Ft 1 = The exponentially smoothed forecast made for
the prior period t-1
D t 1 = The actual demand in the prior period t-1
= The desired response rate or smoothing constant
0α1
Example
Determine forecast for
periods 7 & 8
Period Actual
2-period moving average
1 300
4-period moving average 2 315
2-period weighted moving 3 290
average with t-1 weighted 4 345
0.6 and t-2 weighted 0.4 5 320
6 360
Exponential smoothing
with alpha=0.2 and the 7 375
period 6 forecast being 375 8
Solution
2- 4- 2- Expon.
Period Actual Period Period Per.Wgted. Smooth.
1 300
2 315
3 290
4 345
5 320
6 360
F
tt
αD
t1
α)(F
(1 T
t)
1
– Step 2 – Smoothing the trend/Trend estimate
T
tt
β(F
F
t1
)
β)T
(1
t1
- Regression Equation
Y 01 X- Regression Line
- Regression Analysis equation
Where : - Mean value function model
Y = the dependent variable
X = independent variable
0 and 1 = the intercept and the slope of
the line respectively (regression coefficients)
The mean/expected value of the dependent variable, Y is
assumed to be a linear function of the independent variable, X
…Cont'd
• The actual observed value y may not fall exactly
on the straight line.
• The actual value of y is determined by the mean
value function (the linear model) plus a random
error term,
Y= 0 + 1 X +
Non random Random error
Errors in Regression
Y
the
observed
data
point
ˆ
Y
0
1X the
fitted
Y
i
. regress
lin
Yi
ii
Error
Y
{
ˆ
Y
i
t
Y
ihep
r
edi
cte
dva
l
ueo
fYf
orX
i
X
Xi
…Cont'd
• Estimation of a simple linear regression relationship
involves finding Regression coefficients, 0 and 1
of the linear regression line
• The estimates of 0 and 1 should result in a line
that is (in some sense) a “best fit” to the data
• The values of Regression coefficients (0 and 1 )
should be determined so that the sum of the
squares of the vertical deviations is minimized.
• This criterion for estimating the regression
coefficients is called method of least squares.
The least squares method
…Cont'd
Notationally, it is occasionally convenient to give
special symbols to the numerator and denominator of
the previous Equation
Therefore; 1 = Sxy/Sxx ˆ
Y 0
1 X
Miles
1211
Dollars
1802
Miles 2
1466521
Miles*Dollars
2182222
Example
1345 2405 1809025 3234725
1422 2005 2022084 2851110
1687 2511 2845969 4236057
S xx x
2 x 2
1849 2332 3418801 4311868 n
2026 2305 4104676 4669930
79,448 2
2133 3016 4549689 6433128 293,426,946 40,947,557 .84
2253 3385 5076009 7626405 25
2400 3090 5760000 7416000 x ( y)
S xy xy
2468 3694 6091024 9116792 n
390,185,014 (79,448)(106,605) 51,402,852 .4
2699 3371 7284601 9098329
2806 3998 7873636 11218388
25
3082 3555 9498724 10956510
S
3209 4692 10297681 15056628
b XY 51,402,852 .4 1.255333776 1.26
3466 4244 12013156 14709704 1 S 40,947,557 .84
3643 5298 13271449 19300614
XX
3852 4801 14837904 18493452
b y b x 106,605 (1.255333776 ) 79,448
4033 5147 16265089 20757852 0 1 25 25
4267 5738 18207288 24484046
274 .85
4498 6420 20232004 28877160
4533 6059 20548088 27465448
4804 6426 23078416 30870504
5090 6321 25908100 32173890
5233 7026 27384288 36767056
5439 6964 29582720 37877196
79,448 106,605 293,426,946 390,185,014
Correlation coefficient (r)
• Correlation coefficient (r) measures the direction
and strength of the linear relationship between
two variables
• Correlation can range from -1 to +1
• The correlation between two variables can be
computed using the following equation
r
n
XY X
Y
n
* n Y
2 2
X X 2
Y 2
…Cont'd
• The square of correlation coefficient, r2 provides
a measure of the percentage of variability in the
values of dependent variable y that is
“explained” by the independent variable x
• The possible values of r 2 range from 0 to 1
• A relatively high value of r 2, would indicate that
the independent variable is a good predictor of
values of the dependent variable.
• A low value of r 2, would indicate a poor
predictor
Example
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
Sales $ Adv.$ XY X^2 Y^2
(Y)
130
(X)
32 4160 2304 16,900 b
XYnXY
1
X nX 2 2
428,202
189
589
r .982
* 487,165
589
2 2
4(9253)
-(189)
r .982
.964
2 2
Forecast Accuracy
• One of the most important criteria for choosing a
forecasting model is its accuracy
• Forecast error is the difference between the
forecast and actual value for a given period,
Et = At - Ft
Where: Et = forecast error for period t
At = actual value for period t
Ft = forecast for period t
• Note that over-forecasts = negative errors and
under-forecasts = positive errors
…Cont'd
• There are a variety of possible sources of forecast
errors, including the following:
1. The model may be inadequate due to
The omission of an important variable
A change or shift in the variable that the model cannot
deal with (e.g., sudden appearance of a trend or cycle)
The appearance of a new variable (e.g., new
competitor).
2. Irregular variations may occur due to severe weather or
other natural phenomena, temporary shortages or
breakdowns, catastrophes, or similar events.
…Cont'd
3. Random variations. Randomness is the inherent
variation that remains in the data after all causes of
variation have been accounted for. There are always
random variations.
• A one time period forecast error provides a forecast
error of a particular, single period which fails to
asses forecasting performance of a given forecasting
technique
• The model's accuracy can be assessed only if
forecast performance is measured over time
Measure of forecast accuracy
1. Mean Absolute Deviation
MAD
actual
fore
(MAD)- is the average of the sum n
of the absolute errors
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct
Orders 120 90 100 75 110 50 75 130 110 90
Solution
…Cont'd
Example
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?
Solution
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 27 3 3 1
Feb. 26 25 1 3 3 25 1 4 1.5
Marc 32 32 0 3 3 29 3 7 3
h
April 29 30 -1 2 2 27 2 9 4
May 31 30 1 3 3 29 2 11 5
MAD 1 2
MSE 1.4 4.4