Demand Forecasting and Inventory Control

A practical guide to the forecasting and inventory control methods used in commercial, retail and manufacturing companies. Colin Lewis explains the theory and practice of demand forecasting methods, the links between forecasts produced as a result of analyzing demand data and the various methods by which this information, together with cost information on stocked items, is used to establish the controlling parameters of the most commonly-used inventory control systems. The demand forecasting section of the book concentrates on the family of short-term forecasting models based on the exponentially weighted average and its many variants and also a group of medium-term forecasting models based on a time series, curve fitting approach. The inventory control sections investigate the re-order level policy and re-order cycle policy and indicate how these two processes can be operated at minimum cost while offering a high level of customer service.