I am helping a PhD Candidate in Management Science, Matt Weller, from the Lancaster University Management School in the UK with some research related to demand forecasting. Specifically, Matt's research relates to forecast collaboration, and he asked for help in generating responses to an on-line survey targeted to forecasting practitioners and demand planners. More information about the research and a link to an on-line survey can be found in this document.

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Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Hello, I am helping a PhD Candidate in Management Science, Matt Weller, from
the Lancaster University Management School, (Lancaster, United Kingdom) with
some research related to demand forecasting.
Specifically, Matt’s research relates to forecast collaboration, and he asked me to
help him generate responses to an on-line survey related to this research. The
target group for this survey is forecasting practitioners and demand planners.
More information about the research, a link to the on-line survey, and contact
information for Matt can be found below.
(Note: I am doing this purely pro bono to help Matt, and am not receiving any type
of compensation. Please direct all additional questions to Matt at the contact
information found in his memorandum below.)
Thank-you for your time and interest on Matt’s behalf.
Sincerely,
Jim Biel
Chicago, IL USA
Cell: 847.687.5379
E-Mail: jimbiel@hotmail.com
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbiel
Additional Info: http://www.slideshare.net/jimbiel
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Subject: Collaborative Forecasting research
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 10:01:32 +0100
From: matt.weller@lancaster.ac.uk
To: jimbiel@hotmail.com
Dear Jim,
I’m currently researching how manufacturing companies make use of collaboration and
shared information in their forecasting process. There is a real lack of information out
there about current practice in this area and my research aims to address the following
questions:
- What forms of collaboration are companies participating in and what data is
being shared by their downstream partners?
- How are firms using this information, if at all, in their forecasting process?
Through statistical methods, analytics or judgment?
- How do firms cope with differing data conditions and forecasting requirements of
different customers?

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I’m hoping to engage with forecasting practitioners and demand planners by way of a
survey and potentially follow-up discussions to understand the state of the art. My
hypothesis is that there is a huge amount of data available but, despite some idealistic
cases published out there, companies are either not able to leverage the data through
their forecasting systems or rely on either a judgmental or exception management
approach rather than the advanced statistical techniques available.
Your participation would be greatly appreciated and all respondents will receive a copy
of the findings. The survey should take between 15 to 20 minutes to complete and you
are able to pause and return at a later point by clicking the bar at the top of the
webpage. Obviously ALL data will remain private and no details of specific cases will
be made available!
The survey and full guidance can be found at:
www.collaborative-forecasting.co.uk/survey/cf_survey.html
Subsequently, the research will look to test out some alternative statistical approaches
to integrating downstream data into the forecasting models automatically with the
objective of improving forecast accuracy.
Many thanks for your time, please do not hesitate to contact me (see below) if you have
any questions,
__________________________________________
Matt Weller
PhD Candidate in Management Science
Lancaster Research Centre for Forecasting
Department of Management Science
Lancaster University Management School
Lancaster LA1 4YX, United Kingdom
Tel +44 (7788) 456416 mobile
Internet http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk - eMail matt.weller@lancaster.ac.uk