We have previously written about the perils of third-party data in forecasting. The notion that more data helps improve forecasting is true in principle, albeit in practice it can make things worse. An article published in the fourth quarter 2022…
As of Monday, November 21st, 2022, the prospects of averting a nationwide rail strike appear to be grim. The Federal government intervened in September, avoiding a strike at that time. But there was a sense that this was just "kicking…
Many have touted the inclusion of data from outside the firm as a way to improve forecast accuracy. The idea is that, with the incorporation of more information to explain the demand signal, forecasts are bound to be better. In…
After many months of angst about rapidly rising commodity prices, indications are that they are coming back down. This presents an opportunity for a data-driven business that uses advanced analytics. Though there is pain in operating a supply chain under…
With supply chain issues topping recent news, the railroad industry is under scrutiny for how well they operate their networks. As a follow-up to our previous post about railroad industry operating ratio, we here consider how analytics and machine learning…
There has never been a more challenging time for the trucking industry. From driver retention and recruiting, to safety, maintenance, and fuel savings, leading companies are now beginning to use a data analytics approach to improve their operations and financial…
Rob Stevens with First Analytics will be speaking at the upcoming Foresight Practitioner Conference November 13th at 9:30 AM in Chapel Hill, NC. This conference will primarily focus on Artificial Intelligence and what this means for forecasting and planning. Rob…
Back in 2016, Tom Davenport wrote a book, “Only Human’s Need Apply." This book was focused on the notion that companies should embrace smart technologies and ensure they are well positioned to have work augmented by them, and not automated.…
The sharing of techniques and methodologies across industries can produce advances in successful applications, not only for the practice of analytics as a whole, but for individual firms. Practitioners in the areas of marketing and supply chain analytics, for example,…
Companies use forecasting methods to plan for future demand using time series data. Often, these time series can be represented in a hierarchy. For example, products can be broken down to different levels of sales data. Figure 1 shows an…