Question

Kumaran Pillay has a vegetable stall at the Suva Market. His business has been plagued with under-stocking and over-stocking problems for some time now. When he under-stocks, he loses sales as customers move to competing stalls. When he over-stocks, is left with unsold vegetables. These are perishable and cannot be kept long for later sales. Pillay is concerned with how he can minimize these losses stemming from under and over-stocking.
1. Identify and explain how he could use 3 qualitative forecasting methods to improve his stocking. Note that you will need to justify your proposals and link it to the business being discussed. (10 marks)

2. Identify and explain how he could use 2 quantitative forecasting methods to improve his stocking. Note that you will need to justify your proposals and link it to the business being discussed. (10 marks)

Answer 1

Answer:

1) Using the 3 qualitative forecasting methods

Executive opinions,

Delphi method,

Salesforce polling.

2) Using the 2 quantitative forecasting methods:-

The straight-line method,

The average approach.

Explanation:

1) Using the 3 qualitative forecasting methods

Executive opinions- In this method, he could seek subjective views from experts concerning his sales. this might be viewed on his purchasing, finance, and future sales. However, it's utilized in conjunction with other quantitative forecasting methods so as to realize the simplest forecasts.

Delphi method- He could question a gaggle of experts about their views individually. they are doing not meet to avoid manipulation in judgments. Forecasts during this case might be compiled and analyzed by an external observer and returned to the experts for further questioning.

Salesforce polling- he could use this approach whereby he reaches bent people that are in touch with the regular customers and who can correctly predict the trends of the customers' consumption so as to offer him insights on how and when to restock counting on demand. This method is sweet for future forecasting since it gives the expected consumption trends of the purchasers that would be employed by the owner to make a decision on the quantity of inventory to stock in the future.

2) Using the 2 quantitative forecasting methods:-

The straight-line method- This is the only method of calculating future sales supported past data. It involves the utilization of a straight-line equation this measures the expansion or future predictions in sort of percentages. Here, past data is collected and a few analysis is completed to work out the trend that customers might adopt in their subsequent purchases. once they're known, the forecast on increasing or decreasing the inventory is predicated on percentage increase or reduction respectively. for instance, once demand is forecasted to grow, the vendor will decide the share they might order to hide the rise in demand.

The average approach- Here, the owner of a business conducts a mean of the past sales they need to be made to customers over a selected period. the most assumption is that the longer-term forecast is that the average of the past data. Since the owner has been making overstocking and understocking methods, it's assumed that the type of the orders is adequate to the longer-term forecast. for instance, if the owner decided within the past to order 100 units of a specific product and therefore the customers demanded quite 100 units maybe 150 units, there's an understocking decision. The owner might plan to increase subsequent stock to 200 units and at this point, the purchasers only demand 175 units making him to possess more stock than it had been required. On learning this concerning the market, the owner then decides to conduct a mean and order 150 units to require care of the overstocking and under-stocking problems.