MBA576 Week 2 Discussion Responses

4

Week 2 Discussion

Andrew Head

MBA576 Operations Management

Dr. Kevin J. Loy

Park University

1

8/25/2021

Abstract

This paper will include creating a forecasting plan with the intent of forecasting production output for Kibby and Strand.  The plan includes forecasting objectives, the data to be used in forecasting, and the quantitative methods the staff is to use in creating the production output forecast.

Week 2 Discussion

The forecasting objectives for Kibby and Strand include ensuring that there are materials available to begin and complete work on the contracts. In order to accomplish this objective in forecasting the associative forecasting technique will be used. The time horizon on this particular forecasting plan would be the 20 week span of completing contracts.

Data to be used are the amount of a specific raw material being purchased and delivery to to Kibby and Strand. Additional data are the number of goods being produced from that raw material. Since Kibby and Strand has the ability to make multiple different types of products using the same raw materials, it is vital to correct forecast the amount of raw material needed to produce the products.

2

This is a forecast based on time-series because the data measured is production output. Output is one of the data measurements listed by Stevenson (2021). The naive method, quantitative, can be used because by the staff of the seasonality of products produced by Kibby and Strand. For example, forecasts to purchase less of a raw material used to make summer clothing may be utilized. The weighted average method can also be used by staff because we should analyze the most recent values in the series. In terms of forecasting output, an accurate representation of raw materials converted to products would be vital by not being as concerned with previous results but rather the most recent.

References

Stevenson, W. J. (2021). Operations management. McGraw-Hill Education.