How to Select the Right Forecasting Method with Epicor Smart IPO

Smart Software is pleased to introduce our new series of educational webinars, offered exclusively for Epicor Users. In this webinar, Erik Subatis, Enterprise Solution Engineer at Smart Software, will reveal the statistical models Epicor Smart IP&O uses to forecast and how the automatic “best pick” system works. While automatic modeling is invaluable for large-scale forecasting, occasionally, these forecasts don’t reflect our expectations and/or business knowledge. Understanding how and when to override the model selection can be a valuable tool in a forecaster’s toolbox. Finally, the presentation will conclude by showing how to increase profitability with software-enhanced inventory planning processes in a Live Demo.

Attending this webinar, you will learn about the statistical models Smart IP&O uses to forecast and how to catch the exceptions so you can make the most of your forecasting tool.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION FORM

 

Please register to attend the webinar. If you are interested but not cannot attend, please register anyway – we will record our session and will send you a link to the replay.

We hope you will be able to join us!

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


For more information, please contact Smart Software,Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

Smart Software VP of Research to Present at Business Analytics Conference, INFORMS 2022

Dr. Tom Willemain to lead INFORMS sessionDominating The Inventory Battlefield: Fighting Randomness With Randomness.”

Belmont, Mass., March 2022 – Smart Software, Inc., provider of industry-leading demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions, today announced that Tom Willemain, Vice President for Research, will present at the INFORMS Business Analytics Conference, April 3-5, 2022, in Houston, TX.

Dr. Willemain will present a session on how next-generation analytics arms supply chain leaders in manufacturing, distribution, and MRO with tools to fight against randomness in demand and supply. During his session he will detail the following technologies:

(1) Regime change filtering to maintain data relevance against sudden shifts in the operating environment.

(2) Bootstrapping methods to generate large numbers of realistic demand and lead time scenarios to fuel models.

(3) Discrete event simulations to process the input scenarios and expose the links between management actions and key performance indicators.

(4) Stochastic optimization based on simulation experiments to tune each item for best results.

Without the analytics, inventory owners have two choices: sticking with rigid operating policies usually based on outdated and invalid rules of thumb or resorting to subjective, gut-feel guesswork that may not help and does not scale.

As the leading Business Analytics Conference, INFORMS provides the opportunity to interact with the world’s top forecasting researchers and practitioners. The attendance is large enough so that the best in the field are attracted, yet small enough that you can meet and discuss one-on-one. In addition, the conference features content from leading analytics professionals who share and showcase top analytics applications that save lives, save money, and solve problems.

 

About Dr. Thomas Willemain

Dr. Thomas Reed Willemain served as an Expert Statistical Consultant to the National Security Agency (NSA) at Ft. Meade, MD, and as a member of the Adjunct Research Staff at an affiliated think-tank, the Institute for Defense Analyses Center for Computing Sciences (IDA/CCS). He is Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, having previously held faculty positions at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also co-founder and Senior Vice President/Research at Smart Software, Inc. He is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, the Military Operations Research Society, the American Statistical Association, and several other professional organizations. Willemain received the BSE degree (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Princeton University and the MS and Ph.D. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His other books include: Statistical Methods for Planners, Emergency Medical Systems Analysis (with R. C. Larson), and 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals on statistics, operations research, health care, and other topics. For more information, email: TomW@SmartCorp.com or visit www.TomWillemain.com.

 

About Smart Software, Inc.

Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as Disney, Arizona Public Service, and Ameren.  Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O have registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are their respective owners’ property.

For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

 

 

Drive Operational Efficiency and Boost Operational Excellence

Smart Software is pleased to introduce our new series of educational webinars, offered exclusively for Epicor Users. Greg Hartunian, CEO at Smart Software, will lead 45-minute webinar focusing on specific approaches to demand forecasting and inventory planning that will enable you to increase profitability, improve service levels, and reduce inventory holding costs. The presentation will outline the challenges associated with traditional inventory planning and demand forecasting processes and how new probabilistic forecasting and optimization methods will make a big difference to your bottom line. Finally, the presentation will conclude by showing how to increase profitability with software-enhanced inventory planning processes in a Live Demo.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION FORM

 

Please register to attend the webinar. If you are interested but not cannot attend, please register anyway – we will record our session and will send you a link to the replay.

We hope you will be able to join us!

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


For more information, please contact Smart Software,Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

January 2022: Maximize service levels and minimize inventory costs

Smart Software specializes in helping spares carrying operations companies optimize their inventory. For example, a leading Electric Utility customer implemented Smart IP&O in just 90 days and reduced inventory by $9,000,000 while maintaining service levels.

Our Smart IP&O platform includes a patented probabilistic forecasting core engineered specifically for intermittently demanded spare parts. Please join our webinar featuring Greg Hartunian, CEO of Smart Software, who will show how to plan optimal inventory levels and purchase quantities for thousands of items when demand is intermittent, constantly changing, or affected by unexpected events. This webinar is an excellent opportunity to learn how to reduce stock-outs and inventory costs by leveraging data-driven decisions that identify the financial trade-offs associated with changes in demand, lead times, service level targets, and costs.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION FORM

 

Please register to attend the webinar. If you are interested but not cannot attend, please register anyway – we will record our session and will send you a link to the replay.

We hope you will be able to join us!

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


For more information, please contact Smart Software,Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); E-mail: info@smartcorp.com

 

Smart Software VP Research to present at the MORS Symposium and at the Emerging Techniques Forum

Smart Software announced today that its co-founder and Senior VP of Research, Dr. Thomas Willemain, has been selected to present at the prestigious Emerging Techniques Forum on December 7-9, 2021, and also at the 89th MORS Symposium on June 21 – 25, 2021. MORS is the Military Operations Research Society, funded by the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Office of the Secretary of the Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is to enhance the quality of analysis that informs national and homeland security decisions.

1) MORS Virtual Symposium provides the defense analytic community with extensive content on emerging analytics topics and techniques. The focus for 89th MORS Symposium will be “Analytics to Enhance Decision Making.”  Willemain will present four sessions this year:

High-Dimensional Data Reconnaissance using Snakes

The Snake is a new analysis tool that can detect the presence of clusters and estimate their number. Snakes provide a unique and readily interpreted visual depiction of the structure of high-dimensional data.

Coincidences: Signal or Noise?

We want to know whether the simultaneous occurrence of two events, i.e., a coincidence, is merely a chance event. If not, there may be some exploitable link between the events. We propose more comprehensive tests based on models of events that account for autocorrelation, trend, and seasonality. 

Generation of Visual Scenarios for Use in Operator Training

Operator training is enhanced by exposure to scenarios depicting real-world data streams. Properly tuned time series bootstraps can create univariate and multivariate scenarios that meet quantity, cost, fidelity, and variety standards. 

Testing for Equality of Several Distributions in High Dimensions

A fundamental Testing and Evaluation analysis task is looking for differences among alternative systems or processes.  Several new tree-based statistics work well for effects that have multiple impacts in both MVN and non-MVN data.

 

2) The Emerging Techniques Forum provides the defense analytic community with extensive content on emerging analytic topics and techniques. Willemain will be one of a small number of experts speaking in the Augmented Decision Making track. 

Dr. Willemain’s topic will be “Coping with Regime Change in Logistics Operations.”

Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Emerging Techniques Forum

 

Dr. Thomas Willemain’s research at Smart Software and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute helps constantly innovate Smart IP&O, the company’s multi-tenant web-based platform for forecasting, inventory planning, and optimization.

 

 

About Smart Software, Inc.

Founded in 1981, Smart Software, Inc. is a leader in providing businesses with enterprise-wide demand forecasting, planning and inventory optimization solutions.  Smart Software’s demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions have helped thousands of users worldwide, including customers at mid-market enterprises and Fortune 500 companies, such as  Disneyland Resorts, Metro-North Railroad, and American Red Cross.  Smart Inventory Planning & Optimization gives demand planners the tools to handle sales seasonality, promotions, new and aging products, multi-dimensional hierarchies, and intermittently demanded service parts and capital goods items.  It also provides inventory managers with accurate estimates of the optimal inventory and safety stock required to meet future orders and achieve desired service levels.  Smart Software is headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.smartcorp.com.

 

SmartForecasts and Smart IP&O are registered trademarks of Smart Software, Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


For more information, please contact Smart Software, Inc., Four Hill Road, Belmont, MA 02478.
Phone: 1-800-SMART-99 (800-762-7899); FAX: 1-617-489-2748; E-mail: info@smartcorp.com