Essay on The Importance Of Forecasting in Market Operations

1. Why would demand forecasting make sense in a “make to stock” situation? It projects the standard components needed so that the product can be made after customer receiving a customer order.

Supply chain operations focus on demand planning, forecasting, and inventory management. Forecasts estimate customer demand for a particular product during a specific period of time based on historical data, external drivers such as upcoming sales and promotions, and any changes in trends or competition. Using

Forecasting is part of a company’s future planning as it attempts to estimate future demand for its product or services. Forecasting is usually measured in specific time periods (months, weeks, etc), given a desired level of accuracy, and assigned a unit of forecasting (sales in units or dollars) (Download Reports 2011). PepsiCo bases its sales forecasts on two main factors: changes in consumer tastes, particularly the rise health consciousness among consumers; and how legal regulations may impact operations, such more federal and local laws

The timing of capacity changes also needs to be taken into consideration to achieve maximum efficenty given that demands of their products varies with seasonal changes. The ability to react to market demand changes quickly will determine manufacturers flexibility in keeping up with these demands. Manufacturers needs facilities to produce, whether warehouses to store its raw materials or finished goods, or manufacturing plants to produce their products. Services facilities are needed by certain manufacturing industries such as consumer electronics to cater for returns. Distribution centres also determine the efficenty of production distribution and un-nesessary inventory holding will result in higher holding cost. Such facilities require large investments and are integral of the manufacturer’s supply chain strategy and thus proper planning is needed when making these decisions regardong the size, location which affect the overall operations. How manufacturers run their productions also determine how successful will they be in terms of productivity and quality levels. Different types of equipment and processes also affect the cost and output of the manufacturing plant. Information systems that flow both upstream and downstream affects the forecasting, planning, inventory and production levels, they must be robust to ensure the manufacturing firm is able to react accordingly to changing demands and variations. In addition to their internal environment,

The current demand forecasting method is based on qualitative techniques more than quantitative ones. If the forecast is not accurate, the company would carry both inventory and stock out costs. It might lose customers due to shortage of supply or carry additional holding costs due to excess production. If the actual demand doesn’t match the forecast ones, and the forecast was too high, this will result in high inventories, obsolescence, asset disposals, and increased carrying costs. When a forecast is too low, the customer resorts to a competitive product or retailer. A supplier could lose both sales and shelf space at that retail location forever if their predictions continue to be inaccurate. The tolerance level of the average consumer

* Forecasting is an impartial strategic ingredient that will ensure apt base for reputable planning. Our forecast is always the first step in developing plans in running the business along with our future plans of growth strategies. With this tool, we are able to anticipate our sales within reason that then can allow for us to control our costs in conjunction with inventory which will then help us to enhance our customer service. Sales forecasting is a vital strategic tactic in our company’s methodology.

3. Market Share: forecasting will help in identifying the size of the market share and market potential will aid in the manufacturing and distribution process. Will also aid in proper utilization and eliminate waste.

Demand Forecasting – Samuel Adams uses demand forecasting to ensure that their customer gets the best and freshest product available. By forecast how many barrels and cases need to be produced, the company ensures that there will not be an extreme excess once the product is ready expire. Samuel Adams also uses the forecasting technique to determine the amount of their seasonal beers that the company will produce at that time of year. By forecasting, the company can adapt their product for the ever changing tastes of their established customers.

Analytic is heavily used in customers demand. We used data mainly statistical progrrams to help us predict what and how much to stock in inventory within the warehouse. We call this forecasting. Forecasting is greatly used during the back to school time frame. That is when we have the highest volume in sales. Marketing and advertisement plays a major role here too. A good example is stocking more Office Depot red top copy papers as compare to Hammermill copy papers. We know that the Office Depot brand is cheaper and sells much faster. The term here is optimizing our space within the warehouse. This saves us tons of money and allows us to stock different products. The goal is here to receive the material from the supplier and

Forecasting is the methodology utilized in the translation of past experiences in an estimation of the future. The German market presents challenges for forecasting techniques especially for its retail segment. Commercially oriented organizations are used to help during forecasting as general works done by academic scientists are not easy to come across (Bonner, 2009).

Fixing the forecasts allows to build the communication between the different departments of a firm (communication between the operational staff, the financial staff, etc.). It should be also a guide for financial planning and monitoring the activity and the performance. It is a tool to evaluate profitability and productivity, to identify an eventual gap between actuals and OP (operating plan), and to fix it.

Over the past semester in Economics I have invested in and monitored the stock market. I learned how investing in certain companies can be risky and proper research about the companies are detrimental before buying stocks. Three stocks that have influenced most of my financial earnings and losses include Twitter, Amazon, and Pepsi.

But even this is not possible in case of a new product or innovation. A forecast of sales, demand, cash, requirements and several such business valuables are extremely essential for a business in order to be able to appropriately plan and conduct its operations in an effective and efficient manner. Yet, forecasts cannot be made accurately as there are several factors and changes in the current environment that leads to variations in forecasts and impacts or causes a manager to make changes in the forecasts.

The mission of the Forecast Re-Design Team was to reduce expenses and risks associated with production and costs of procurement, inventory, quality control and technical infrastructure. According to Fowler, there were four objectives: "(1), to reduce inventory levels across the supply chain; (2) to increase velocity and accuracy of planning information throughout the supply chain; (3) to increase supply upside and downside flexibility; and (4) to improve on-time performance to customers.

The concept of demand forecasting more accurately measures and predicts the changes and opportunities in the supply chain.