In Chapter 4 of the text, I learned about forecasting. A process of strategic importance, forecasting impacts human resources, capacity, and supply chain management and can be accomplished in various ways. Forecasting is used to predict what will happen in a company's future so that it can prepare for those eventualities. Short, medium-, and long-range forecasts target different types of issues and use different forecasting methods, with short-term forecasts being the most accurate. There are seven steps to forecasting, which starts with deciding how the forecast will be used. Next, it must be decided what will be forecasted and in what kind of time horizon. They type of model to be used must then be chosen. Finally the date is gathered, the forecast is made, and the results are validated and implemented. Either qualitative or quantitative approaches may be used, depending on whether the data available is sketchy or substantive. Then a variety of approaches can be applied, from trending to averaging. Forecasting is not an exact science, so the exact method used in each case will be the one that offers the least risk of error, taking into account any seasonal or other variables. Associative forecasting is a bit more reliable, as it uses one factor in the situation to predict another.
Chapter 11 discusses supply chain management, explaining how it works, what the issues are in a global context, and how it works hand in hand with strategy. The management of a supply chain demands that the business decides whether to make or buy its products and whether to do the work in house or via outsourcing. Principles and standards of ethical conduct are also explained. Several supply chain strategies are described(negotiating with many suppliers, long-term partnering with few suppliers, vertical integration, keiretsu, and virtual supply chain management using suppliers only as needed. The distribution systems and thir...