Often companies must prepare foreca

Often companies must prepare forecasts for hundreds or even thousands of services or products repeatedly. For example, a large network of health care facilities must calculate demand forecasts for each of its services for every department. This undertaking involves voluminous data that must be manipulated frequently. However, software can ease the burden of making these forecasts and coordinating the forecasts between customers and suppliers. Many forecasting software packages are available, including Manugistics, Forecast Pro, and SAS. The forecasting routines in OM Explorer and POM for Windows give some hint of their capabilities. Forecasting is not just a set of techniques, but instead a process that must be designed and managed. While there is no one process that works foreveryone, here we describe two comprehensive processes that can be quite effective in managing operations and the supply chain.