Dates for this course

17/08/10 - 17/08/10

08/12/10 - 08/12/10

Who should attend:
• Business development managers
• Product development managers
• Market analysts – planning promotions and product launches, for example
• Demand planners – managing seasonal patterns and special events
• Production planners – translating forecasts into production plans

Objectives:
• To identify the purpose of forecasting at business unit level.
• To identify the processes of business planning.
• To describe some forecasting techniques at product level.
• To identify measures of forecast accuracy, and how they influence working capital levels.
• To show how forecasts are used to plan business operations.

Content:
• Data requirements for forecasting at business unit level – Sales and Operations Planning
• Determining aggregate capacity requirements
• Assessing business unit capabilities – identifying “gaps”
• Breaking down the top level forecasts into product group forecasts
• Forecasting tools – moving averages, exponential smoothing, regression analysis to forecast at product level
• Measuring forecast error
• Dealing with seasonality in demand patterns
• Using EXCEL functions for forecasting – regression analysis, and other methods
• Developing production plans based on forecasts