Demand Forecasting

Proper demand forecasting helps any business provide valuable information regarding their potential in the present market or other markets. This allows the managers to get informed about the appropriate pricing strategy, market growth and potential, and business strategy. Without demand forecasting, a business has a risk of making poor decisions regarding target markets and products. These poor decisions can overall harm customer satisfaction and the company’s supply chain.

Methods of demand forecasting

There is no simple or easy formula for forecasting the demand. A proper scientific procedure is needed to judge the future market of the product or services. Some of the methods of demand forecasting are discussed ahead:

• Survey of Buyers choice – when the demand needs proper forecasting in a short period, then one of the most commonly used methods, in this case, is the survey method where potential customers of the company directly interview through a survey.
• Collective opinion method – in this method, a company salesman predicts future sales across a particular region. These individual estimations are then aggregated for the overall calculation of demand forecasting. In this way, assessments have been reviewed, and factors related to the future changes of the products have been made.
• Barometric method –the barometric method is based on the past demands of the product and services, and by using the one-time demand, the companies try to find out the future demand of the product. The economic indicators are generally used for demand forecasting for the future. This is one of the most practiced methods of demand forecasting and is also one of the most valuable methods.

Demand forecasting techniques

According to the definition, demand forecasting is the art and the signs of the future prediction of the demand for any product or service. The forecast is nearly based upon the past behavior techniques and the present demand of any product. Demand forecasting has various techniques related to it, and these are:

• Market experiment technique – under the market experiment technique of demand forecasting, the overall demand is forecasted through conducting various market experiments and studies related to the behavior of the consumer. These studies were performed under market conditions. This technique of demand forecasting is said to be very time-consuming and also is quite expensive for any organisation.
• Expert opinion technique – in a usual manner, the market experts have overall knowledge about the factors which affect the demand of any product. The opinion of the experts can act as a demand forecasting technique as well. In this technique, the experts are given a questionnaire design and are asked to forecast the demand for the product. Practical reasons have also been mentioned by these experts, and their opinions have been shared among the organisation to conclude. This is comparatively a much cheaper and faster technique of demand forecasting.
• Statistical technique –the statistical technique of demand forecasting is one of the most essential methods of forecasting demand. This method is very reliable, scientific, and also free from any biases. This is a very successful technique that gives organisations a good amount of past data related to their sales. In this method, the data is accumulated chronologically according to the time series, and proper demand for the product can be achieved through that.

Benefits of demand forecasting

Demand forecasting is a very good practice among any organisation and helps the organisation to build proper relations with the customers. Demand forecasting helps the organisation improve its inventory management. Supply and demand mismatches can be fixed if proper demand forecasting is done, and real-time data can also increase forecasting accuracy. Demand forecasting will also help companies in improving their labor scheduling. Appointing the correct person at the right place at the correct time is a very difficult process. If proper demand forecasting can be done, then this process can be achieved very quickly, and demand forecasting can adequately play a very important role in labor scheduling.

Conclusion

In today’s world, every organisation should be accomplished with demand forecasting methods. Demand forecasting helps every company make a very informed decision which affects the inventory planning or the supply chain. The customer’s expectations in the present situation changed very fast. That’s why businesses need proper forecasting of the demand to be accurate with the customer’s interests. Demand forecasting will be one of the primary ways of doing this, and it will also help the companies to manage competition in this way.