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Forecasting for intermittent demand: the estimation of an unbiased average

Author

Listed:
  • E A Shale

    (University of Warwick)

  • J E Boylan

    (Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College)

  • F R Johnston

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

The majority of the range of items held by many stockists exhibit intermittent demand. Accurate forecasting of the issue rate for such items is important and several methods have been developed, but all produce biased forecasts to a greater or lesser degree. This paper derives the bias expected when the order arrivals follows a Poisson process, which leads to a correction factor for application in practice. Extensions to some other arrival processes are briefly considered.

Suggested Citation

  • E A Shale & J E Boylan & F R Johnston, 2006. "Forecasting for intermittent demand: the estimation of an unbiased average," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(5), pages 588-592, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:57:y:2006:i:5:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602031
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602031
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. F R Johnston & J E Boylan & E A Shale, 2003. "An examination of the size of orders from customers, their characterisation and the implications for inventory control of slow moving items," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 54(8), pages 833-837, August.
    2. F R Johnston & J E Boyland & M Meadows & E Shale, 1999. "Some properties of a simple moving average when applied to forecasting a time series," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 50(12), pages 1267-1271, December.
    3. J. B. Ward, 1978. "Determining Reorder Points When Demand is Lumpy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(6), pages 623-632, February.
    4. Syntetos, Aris A. & Boylan, John E., 2005. "The accuracy of intermittent demand estimates," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 303-314.
    5. A H C Eaves & B G Kingsman, 2004. "Forecasting for the ordering and stock-holding of spare parts," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(4), pages 431-437, April.
    6. Charles E. Clark, 1957. "Mathematical Analysis of an Inventory Case," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 5(5), pages 627-643, October.
    7. Syntetos, A. A. & Boylan, J. E., 2001. "On the bias of intermittent demand estimates," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1-3), pages 457-466, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. A A Syntetos & J E Boylan & S M Disney, 2009. "Forecasting for inventory planning: a 50-year review," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(1), pages 149-160, May.
    2. Zhu, Sha & Jaarsveld, Willem van & Dekker, Rommert, 2020. "Spare parts inventory control based on maintenance planning," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    3. Syntetos, Aris A. & Zied Babai, M. & Gardner, Everette S., 2015. "Forecasting intermittent inventory demands: simple parametric methods vs. bootstrapping," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1746-1752.
    4. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    5. Zhu, Sha & Dekker, Rommert & van Jaarsveld, Willem & Renjie, Rex Wang & Koning, Alex J., 2017. "An improved method for forecasting spare parts demand using extreme value theory," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 169-181.
    6. F R Johnston & E A Shale & S Kapoor & R True & A Sheth, 2011. "Breadth of range and depth of stock: forecasting and inventory management at Euro Car Parts Ltd," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(3), pages 433-441, March.
    7. Wang, Wenbin & Syntetos, Aris A., 2011. "Spare parts demand: Linking forecasting to equipment maintenance," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1194-1209.
    8. Prak, Derk & Teunter, Rudolf & Babai, M. Z. & Syntetos, A. A. & Boylan, D, 2018. "Forecasting and Inventory Control with Compound Poisson Demand Using Periodic Demand Data," Research Report 2018010, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    9. Spiliotis, Evangelos & Makridakis, Spyros & Kaltsounis, Anastasios & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2021. "Product sales probabilistic forecasting: An empirical evaluation using the M5 competition data," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    10. Altay, Nezih & Litteral, Lewis A. & Rudisill, Frank, 2012. "Effects of correlation on intermittent demand forecasting and stock control," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 275-283.
    11. R Fildes & K Nikolopoulos & S F Crone & A A Syntetos, 2008. "Forecasting and operational research: a review," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(9), pages 1150-1172, September.
    12. A A Syntetos & M Z Babai & Y Dallery & R Teunter, 2009. "Periodic control of intermittent demand items: theory and empirical analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(5), pages 611-618, May.
    13. Ali Caner Türkmen & Tim Januschowski & Yuyang Wang & Ali Taylan Cemgil, 2021. "Forecasting intermittent and sparse time series: A unified probabilistic framework via deep renewal processes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-26, November.
    14. Evangelos Spiliotis & Spyros Makridakis & Artemios-Anargyros Semenoglou & Vassilios Assimakopoulos, 2022. "Comparison of statistical and machine learning methods for daily SKU demand forecasting," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 3037-3061, July.
    15. Pennings, Clint L.P. & van Dalen, Jan & van der Laan, Erwin A., 2017. "Exploiting elapsed time for managing intermittent demand for spare parts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 958-969.
    16. Babai, M. Zied & Ali, Mohammad M. & Nikolopoulos, Konstantinos, 2012. "Impact of temporal aggregation on stock control performance of intermittent demand estimators: Empirical analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 713-721.

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