Abstract:

Intermittent demand forecasting is crucial for firms and commercial activities. Recently, many researchers have focused on forecasting methods for intermittent demand and proposed various forecasting techniques. The most prominent methods among these proposed techniques are the Croston method, which is based on exponential smoothing, and its two popular variations: SBA (Syntetos-Boylan Approximation), SBJ (Shale-Boylan-Johnston Approximation). Croston method is widely used in forecasting of intermittent demand and inventory (stock) control. Since these demands usually include zero values, using the ground breaking method developed by Croston in this data becomes inevitable. Nevertheless, there are some shortcomings to this method such as producing biased forecasts and for this reason its variations have been proposed. ATA method is a recently developed forecasting method which is an alternative to exponential smoothing. In this paper we propose a modification of ATA method that can be used for forecasting of intermittent demand. We will compare the results of the proposed approach to those of Croston and other forecasting methods used for intermittent demand forecasting.

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