IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v60y2009i3d10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602569.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Forecasting intermittent demand: a comparative study

Author

Listed:
  • R H Teunter

    (Lancaster University Management School)

  • L Duncan

    (Lancaster University Management School)

Abstract

Methods for forecasting intermittent demand are compared using a large data set from the UK Royal Air Force. Several important results are found. First, we show that the traditional per period forecast error measures are not appropriate for intermittent demand, even though they are consistently used in the literature. Second, by comparing the ability to approximate target service levels and stock holding implications, we show that Croston's method (and a variant) and Bootstrapping clearly outperform Moving Average and Single Exponential Smoothing. Third, we show that the performance of Croston and Bootstrapping can be significantly improved by taking into account that an order in a period is triggered by a demand in that period.

Suggested Citation

  • R H Teunter & L Duncan, 2009. "Forecasting intermittent demand: a comparative study," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 60(3), pages 321-329, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:60:y:2009:i:3:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602569
    DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602569
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602569?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Snyder, Ralph, 2002. "Forecasting sales of slow and fast moving inventories," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(3), pages 684-699, August.
    2. Syntetos, A. A. & Boylan, J. E., 2001. "On the bias of intermittent demand estimates," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1-3), pages 457-466, May.
    3. Blyth C. Archibald & Edward A. Silver, 1978. "(s, S) Policies Under Continuous Review and Discrete Compound Poisson Demand," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(9), pages 899-909, May.
    4. Willemain, Thomas R. & Smart, Charles N. & Schwarz, Henry F., 2004. "A new approach to forecasting intermittent demand for service parts inventories," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 375-387.
    5. J. B. Ward, 1978. "Determining Reorder Points When Demand is Lumpy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(6), pages 623-632, February.
    6. Regattieri, A. & Gamberi, M. & Gamberini, R. & Manzini, R., 2005. "Managing lumpy demand for aircraft spare parts," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 426-431.
    7. Syntetos, Aris A. & Boylan, John E., 2005. "The accuracy of intermittent demand estimates," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 303-314.
    8. Rob J. Hyndman, 2006. "Another Look at Forecast Accuracy Metrics for Intermittent Demand," Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting, International Institute of Forecasters, issue 4, pages 43-46, June.
    9. Willemain, Thomas R. & Smart, Charles N. & Shockor, Joseph H. & DeSautels, Philip A., 1994. "Forecasting intermittent demand in manufacturing: a comparative evaluation of Croston's method," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 529-538, December.
    10. A H C Eaves & B G Kingsman, 2004. "Forecasting for the ordering and stock-holding of spare parts," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(4), pages 431-437, April.
    11. Fildes, Robert, 1992. "The evaluation of extrapolative forecasting methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 81-98, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Altay, Nezih & Rudisill, Frank & Litteral, Lewis A., 2008. "Adapting Wright's modification of Holt's method to forecasting intermittent demand," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 389-408, February.
    2. Jože Martin Rožanec & Blaž Fortuna & Dunja Mladenić, 2022. "Reframing Demand Forecasting: A Two-Fold Approach for Lumpy and Intermittent Demand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Bacchetti, Andrea & Saccani, Nicola, 2012. "Spare parts classification and demand forecasting for stock control: Investigating the gap between research and practice," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 722-737.
    4. Gardner, Everette Jr., 2006. "Exponential smoothing: The state of the art--Part II," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 637-666.
    5. Hu, Qiwei & Boylan, John E. & Chen, Huijing & Labib, Ashraf, 2018. "OR in spare parts management: A review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 266(2), pages 395-414.
    6. Pinçe, Çerağ & Turrini, Laura & Meissner, Joern, 2021. "Intermittent demand forecasting for spare parts: A Critical review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    7. Snyder, Ralph D. & Ord, J. Keith & Beaumont, Adrian, 2012. "Forecasting the intermittent demand for slow-moving inventories: A modelling approach," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 485-496.
    8. Prak, Derk & Teunter, Rudolf & Babai, M. Z. & Syntetos, A. A. & Boylan, D, 2018. "Forecasting and Inventory Control with Compound Poisson Demand Using Periodic Demand Data," Research Report 2018010, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    9. R Fildes & K Nikolopoulos & S F Crone & A A Syntetos, 2008. "Forecasting and operational research: a review," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(9), pages 1150-1172, September.
    10. Zhu, Sha & Dekker, Rommert & van Jaarsveld, Willem & Renjie, Rex Wang & Koning, Alex J., 2017. "An improved method for forecasting spare parts demand using extreme value theory," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 169-181.
    11. Mariusz Doszyn, 2020. "Accuracy of Intermittent Demand Forecasting Systems in the Enterprise," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 912-930.
    12. Teunter, Ruud H. & Syntetos, Aris A. & Zied Babai, M., 2011. "Intermittent demand: Linking forecasting to inventory obsolescence," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 214(3), pages 606-615, November.
    13. Kourentzes, Nikolaos, 2013. "Intermittent demand forecasts with neural networks," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 198-206.
    14. Turrini, Laura & Meissner, Joern, 2019. "Spare parts inventory management: New evidence from distribution fitting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(1), pages 118-130.
    15. Li, Chongshou & Lim, Andrew, 2018. "A greedy aggregation–decomposition method for intermittent demand forecasting in fashion retailing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(3), pages 860-869.
    16. Pennings, Clint L.P. & van Dalen, Jan & van der Laan, Erwin A., 2017. "Exploiting elapsed time for managing intermittent demand for spare parts," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 958-969.
    17. Teunter, Ruud & Sani, Babangida, 2009. "On the bias of Croston's forecasting method," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 194(1), pages 177-183, April.
    18. K Nikolopoulos & A A Syntetos & J E Boylan & F Petropoulos & V Assimakopoulos, 2011. "An aggregate–disaggregate intermittent demand approach (ADIDA) to forecasting: an empirical proposition and analysis," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(3), pages 544-554, March.
    19. Zhu, Sha & Jaarsveld, Willem van & Dekker, Rommert, 2020. "Spare parts inventory control based on maintenance planning," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    20. Boylan, J.E. & Syntetos, A.A., 2007. "The accuracy of a Modified Croston procedure," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 511-517, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:60:y:2009:i:3:d:10.1057_palgrave.jors.2602569. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.