Service Management: An Integrated Approach to Supply Chain Management and Operations

15. Forecasting Demand for Services

15.1. Introduction

Every day, managers make decisions without knowing what will happen in the future.

Making good estimates is the main purpose of forecasting. This chapter explains why forecasting is so important to service operations, what types of service outputs are forecast, and the factors that affect the choice of forecasting methods. A variety of forecasting models are also presented, such as exponential smoothing, moving averages, time series extrapolation, and linear regression.

Good forecasts are an essential input to all types of productive systems because they form the basis for planning. There are many types of services, however, that would be chaotic without careful forecasting of demand. A ...