Forecasting and operational research : a review

Fildes, R, Nikolopoulos, K, Crone, S and Syntetos, A 2008, 'Forecasting and operational research : a review' , Journal of the Operational Research Society, 59 (9) , pp. 1150-1172.

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Abstract

From its foundation, operational research (OR) has made many substantial contributions to practical forecasting in organizations. Equally, researchers in other disciplines have influenced forecasting practice. Since the last survey articles in JORS, forecasting has developed as a discipline with its own journals. While the effect of this increased specialization has been a narrowing of the scope of OR’s interest in forecasting, research from an OR perspective remains vigorous. OR has been more receptive than other disciplines to the specialist research published in the forecasting journals, capitalizing on some of their key findings. In this paper, we identify the particular topics of OR interest over the past 25 years. After a brief summary of the current research in forecasting methods, we examine those topic areas that have grabbed the attention of OR researchers: computationally intensive methods and applications in operations and marketing. Applications in operations have proved particularly important, including the management of inventories and the effects of sharing forecast information across the supply chain. The second area of application is marketing, including customer relationship management using data mining and computer-intensive methods. The paper concludes by arguing that the unique contribution that OR can continue to make to forecasting is through developing models that link the effectiveness of new forecasting methods to the organizational context in which the models will be applied. The benefits of examining the system rather than its separate components are likely to be substantial.

Item Type:	Article
Themes:	Subjects outside of the University Themes
Schools:	Schools > Salford Business School > Salford Business School Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of the Operational Research Society
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	0160-5682
Depositing User:	Professor Aris Syntetos
Date Deposited:	13 Oct 2011 10:14
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 13:01
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/18286

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