Demand and Supply Integration

Chapter 4 Forecasting as a Management Process

Our research team published an article several years ago that we titled “Seven Keys to Better Forecasting.”10 Key number 1 is “Understand what forecasting is and what it is not,” and this key relates directly to the topic of this chapter. We made the point that for too many companies, the management of forecasting begins and ends with the selection of forecasting software. For other companies, forecasting is the same as planning, and for still others, forecasting is an exercise in goal setting. As we emphasized in our article, forecasting is a management process, and like any other management process, it must be carefully organized, with attention paid to the people, processes, and tools that constitute ...