Smart IP&O offers automated statistical forecasting that selects the right forecast method that best forecasts the data.  It does this for each time-series in the data set.  This blog will help a laymen understand how the forecast methods are chosen automatically.

Smart makes many methods available including single and double exponential smoothing, linear and simple moving average, and Winters models.  Each model is designed to capture a different sort of pattern.  The criteria to automatically choose one statistical method out of a set of choices is based on which method came closest to correctly predicting held-out history.

Earlier demand history is passed to each method and the result is compared to actuals to find the one that came closest overall.  That “winning” automatically chosen method is then fed all the history for that item to produce the forecast.

The overall nature of the demand pattern for the item is captured by holding out different portions of the history so that an occasional outlier does not unduly influence the choice of method.  You can visualize it using the below diagram where each row represents a 3-period forecast in held out history, based on different amounts of the red earlier history.  The variances of each pass are averaged together to determine the method’s overall ranking against all other methods.

For most time series, this process can accurately capture trends, seasonality, and average volume accurately. But sometimes a chosen method comes mathematically closest to predicting the held-out history but doesn’t project it forward in a way that makes sense.

Users can correct this by using the system’s exception reports and filtering features to identify items that merit review.  They can then configure the automatic forecast methods that they wish to be considered for that item.

How long should it take for a demand forecast to be computed using statistical methods?  This question is often asked by customers and prospects.  The answer truly depends.  Forecast results for a single item can be computed in the blink of an eye, in as little as a few hundredths of a second, but sometimes they may require as much as five seconds.  To understand the differences, it’s important to understand that there is more involved than grinding through the forecast arithmetic itself.   Here are six factors that influence the speed of your forecast engine.

1) Forecasting method.  Traditional time-series extrapolative techniques (such as exponential smoothing and moving average methods), when cleverly coded, are lighting fast.  For example, the Smart Forecast automatic forecasting engine that leverages these techniques and powers our demand planning and inventory optimization software can crank out statistical forecasts on 1,000 items in 1 second!  Extrapolative methods produce an expected forecast and a summary measure of forecast uncertainty. However, more complex models in our platform that generate probabilistic demand scenarios take much longer given the same computing resources.  This is partly because they create a much larger volume of output, usually thousands of plausible future demand sequences. More time, yes, but not time wasted, since these results are much more complete and form the basis for downstream optimization of inventory control parameters.

2) Computing resources.  The more resources you throw at the computation, the faster it will be.  However, resources cost money and it may not be economical to invest in these resources.  For example, to make certain types of machine learning-based forecasts work, the system will need to multi-thread computations across multiple servers to deliver results quickly.  So, make sure you understand the assumed compute resources and associated costs. Our computations happen on the Amazon Web Services cloud, so it is possible to pay for a great deal of parallel computation if desired.

3) Number of time-series.  Do you have to forecast only a few hundred items in a single location or many thousands of items across dozens of locations?  The greater the number of SKU x Location combinations, the greater the time required.  However, it is possible to trim the time to get demand forecasts by better demand classification.  For example, it is not important to forecast every single SKU x Location combination. Modern Demand Planning Software can first subset the data based on volume/frequency classifications before running the forecast engine.  We’ve observed situations where over one million SKU x Location combinations existed, but only ten percent had demand in the preceding twelve months.

4) Historical Bucketing.  Are you forecasting using daily, weekly, or monthly time buckets?  The more granular the bucketing, the more time it is going to take to compute statistical forecasts.  Many companies will wonder, “Why would anyone want to forecast on a daily basis?” However, state-of-the-art demand forecasting software can leverage daily data to detect simultaneous day-of-week and week-of-month patterns that would otherwise be obscured with traditional monthly demand buckets. And the speed of business continues to accelerate, threatening the competitive viability of the traditional monthly planning tempo.

5) Amount of History.  Are you limiting the model by only feeding it the most recent demand history, or are you feeding all available history to the demand forecasting software? The more history you feed the model, the more data must be analyzed and the longer it is going to take.

6) Additional analytical processing.  So far, we’ve imagined feeding items’ demand history in and getting forecasts out. But the process can also involve additional analytical steps that can improve results. Examples include:

a) Outlier detection and removal to minimize the distortion caused by one-off events like storm damage.

b) Machine learning that decides how much history should be used for each item by detecting regime change.

c) Causal modeling that identifies how changes in demand drivers (such as price, interest rate, customer sentiment, etc.) impact future demand.

d) Exception reporting that uses data analytics to identify unusual situations that merit further management review.

The Rest of the Story. It’s also critical to understand that the time to get an answer involves more than the speed of forecasting computations per se.  Data must be loaded into memory before computing can begin. Once the forecasts are computed, your browser must load the results so that they may be rendered on screen for you to interact with.  If you re-forecast a product, you may choose to save the results.  If you are working with product hierarchies (aggregating item forecasts up to product families, families up to product lines, etc.), the new forecast is going to impact the hierarchy, and everything must be reconciled.   All of this takes time.

Fast Enough for You? When you are evaluating software to see whether your need for speed will be satisfied, all of this can be tested as part of a proof of concept or trial offered by demand planning software solution providers.  Test it out, and make sure that the compute, load, and save times are acceptable given the volume of data and forecasting methods you want to use to support your process.

 What is the wiggle effect? 

It’s when your statistical forecast incorrectly predicts the ups and downs observed in your demand history when there really isn’t a pattern.  It’s important to make sure your forecasts don’t wiggle unless there is a real pattern.

Here is a transcript from a recent customer where this issue was discussed:

Customer: “The forecast isn’t picking up on the patterns I see in the history.  Why not?” 

Smart:  “If you look closely, the ups and downs you see aren’t patterns.  It’s really noise.”  

Customer:  “But if we don’t predict the highs, we’ll stock out.”

Smart: “If the forecast were to ‘wiggle’ it would be much less accurate.  The system will forecast whatever pattern is evident, in this case a very slight uptrend.  We’ll buffer against the noise with safety stocks. The wiggles are used to set the safety stocks.”

Customer: “Ok. Makes sense now.” 

The wiggle looks reassuring but, in this case, it is resulting in an incorrect demand forecast. The ups and downs aren’t really occurring at the same times each month.  A better statistical forecast is shown in light green.

5 Steps to Consensus Demand Planning

The whole point of demand forecasting is to establish the best possible view of future demand.  This requires that we draw upon the best data and inputs we can get, leverage statistics to capture underlying patterns, put our heads together to apply overrides based on business knowledge, and agree on a consensus demand plan that serves as cornerstone to the company’s overall demand plan.

Step 1: Develop an accurate demand signal.   What constitutes demand?  Consider how  your organization defines demand – say, confirmed sales orders net of cancellations or shipment data adjusted to remove the impact of historical stockouts  – and use this consistently.  This is your measure of what the market is requesting you to deliver.  Don’t confuse this with your ability to deliver – that should be reflected in the revenue plan.

Step 2: Generate a statistical forecast.  Plan for thousands of items, using a proven forecasting application that automatically pulls in your data and reliably produces accurate forecasts for all of your items.  Review the first pass of your forecast, then make adjustments.  A strike or train wreck may have interrupted shipping last month – don’t let that wag your forecast.  Adjust for these and reforecast.  Do the best you can, then invite others to weigh in.

Step 3: Bring on the experts.  Product line managers, sales leaders, key distribution partners know their markets.  Share your forecast with them.  Smart uses the concept of a “Snapshot” to share a facsimile of your forecast – at any level, for any product line – with people who may know better.  There could be an enormous order that hasn’t hit the pipeline, or a channel partner is about to run their annual promotion.  Give them an easy way to take their portion of the forecast and change it.  Drag this month up, that one down …

Step 4:  Measure Accuracy and Forecast Value Add.  Some of your contributors may be right on the money, other tend to be biased high or low.  Use forecast vs. actuals reporting and measure forecast value add analysis to measure forecast errors and whether changes to the forecast are hurting or helping.  By informing the process with this information, your company will improve it’s ability to forecast more accurately.

Step 5: Agree on the Consensus Forecast.  You can do this one product line or geography at a time, or business by  business.  Convene the team, graphically stack up their inputs, review past accuracy performance, discuss their reasons for increasing or reducing the forecast, and agree on whose inputs to use.  This becomes your consensus plan.  Finalize the plan and send it off – upload forecasts to MRP, send to finance and manufacturing.  You have just kicked off your Sales, Inventory and Operational Planning process.

You can do this.  And we can help.  If you have any questions about collaborative demand planning please reply to this blog, we will follow up.

In Smart Software’s forty-plus years of providing forecasting software, we’ve met many people who find themselves, perhaps surprisingly, becoming demand forecasters. This blog is aimed primarily at those fortunate individuals who are about to start this adventure (though seasoned pros may enjoy the refresher).

Welcome to the field! Good forecasting can make a big difference to your company’s performance, whether you are forecasting to support sales, marketing, production, inventory, or finance.

There is a lot of math and statistics underlying demand forecasting methods, so your assignment suggests that you are not one of those math-phobic people who would rather be poets. Luckily, if you are feeling a bit shaky and not yet healed from your high school geometry class, a lot of the math is built into forecasting software, so your first job is to leave the math for later while you get a view of the big picture. It is indeed a big picture, but let’s isolate few of the ideas that will most help you succeed.

1. Demand Forecasting is a team sport. Even in a small company, the demand planner is part of a team, with some folks bringing the data, some bringing the tech, and some bringing the business judgment. In a well-run business, your job will never be to simply feed some data into a program and send out a forecast report. Many companies have adopted a process called Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) in which your forecast will be used to kick off a meeting to make certain judgments (e.g., Should we assume this trend will continue? Will it be worse to under-forecast or over-forecast?) and to blend extra information into the final forecast (e.g., sales force input, business intelligence on competitors’ moves, promotions). The implication for you is that your skills at listening and communicating will be important to your success.

2. Statistical Forecasting engines need good fuel. Historical data is the fuel used by statistical forecasting programs, so bad or missing or delayed data can degrade your work product. Your job will implicitly include a quality control aspect, and you must keep a keen eye on the data that are supplied to you. Along the way, it is a good idea to make the IT people your friends.

3. Your name is on your forecasts. Like it or not, if I send forecasts up the chain of command, they get labeled as “Tom’s forecasts.” I must be prepared to own those numbers. To earn my seat at the table, I must be able to explain what data my forecasts were based on, how they were calculated, why I used Method A instead of Method B to do the calculations, and especially how firm or squishy they are. Here honesty is important. No forecast can reasonably be expected to be perfectly accurate, but not all managers can be expected to be perfectly reasonable. If you’re unlucky, your management will think that your reports of forecast uncertainty suggest either ignorance or incompetence. In truth, they indicate professionalism. I have no useful advice about how best to manage such managers, but I can warn you about them. It’s up to you to educate those who use your forecasts. The best managers will appreciate that.

4. Leave your spreadsheets behind. It’s not uncommon for someone to be promoted to forecaster because they were great with Excel. Unless you are with an unusually small company, the scale of modern corporate forecasting overwhelms what you can handle with spreadsheets. The increasing speed of business compounds the problem: the sleepy tempo of annual and quarterly planning meetings is rapidly giving way to weekly or even daily re-forecasts as conditions change. So, be prepared to lean on a professional vendor of modern, scalable cloud-based demand planning and statistical forecasting software for training and support.

5. Think visually. It will be very useful, both in deciding how to generate demand forecasts and in presenting them to management, so take advantage of the visualization capabilities built into forecasting software. As I noted above, in today’s high-frequency business world, the data you work with can change rapidly, so what you did last month may not be the right thing to do this month. Literally keep an eye on your data by making simple plots, like “timeplots” that show things like trend or seasonality or (especially) changes in trend or seasonality or anomalies that must be dealt with. Similarly, supplementing tables of forecasts with graphs comparing current forecasts to prior forecasts to actuals can be very helpful in an S&OP process. For example, timeplots showing past values, forecasted values, and “forecast intervals” indicating the objective uncertainty in the forecasts provide a solid basis for your team to fully appreciate the message in your forecasts.

That’s enough for now. As a person who’s taught in universities for half a century, I’m inclined to start into the statistical side of forecasting, but I’ll save that for another time. The five tips above should be helpful to you as you grow into a key part of your corporate planning team. Welcome to the game!