Tab Content: Our Courses
We have a long and successful history in delivering first class forecasting education to students and practitioners. We guarantee small teaching groups of approx. 10 to 12 students. This allows us to work with you hands-on using real data, running resource-intensive hands-on exercises. Furthermore, each participant will receive a complimentary copy of the latest forecasting book Principles of Business Forecasting by Robert Fildes and Nikos Kourentzes (course leaders) and Keith Ord.
We are the only institute in the UK to offer a Certificate of Forecasting issued by the International Institute of Forecasters (IIF) which acknowledges your forecasting expertise. It can be obtained by successfully attending any two of our courses.
Fundamental forecasting open courses (two-day courses)
- Business Forecasting with Time Series Methods: Learn how to explore your data, forecast your time series and evaluate the results. This course is an ideal introduction to forecasting for both the new recruit and the more experienced forecaster. View our Time Series Methods Course Brochure
- Business Forecasting using R: This course will improve your skills in business forecasting principles and modelling, leveraging the power of the statistical open source software R. View our course website
- Marketing Mix Analytics and Forecasting. Learn how to create forecasts that capture external effects, such as the weather, policy changes or promotions. Regression models are a flexible method that can take into account all those factors that time series methods neglect. View our Marketing Mix Analytics Brochure.
Advanced forecasting courses (one-day courses)
- Artificial Neural Networks: Learn how to build neural networks to accurately predict complex and nonlinear time series.
- Slow Moving & Intermittent Demand: Learn how to forecast reliably slow-moving items, spare parts and other intermittent time series.
- Promotional Modelling: Learn how to build and use advanced predictive models to best model and understand your promotions.
- New Product Forecasting: Learn state-of-the-art forecasting methods to new product demand forecasting and the use of expert opinion and management judgment.
Custom-made courses
We can develop tailor-made courses to meet specific requirements for individuals or entire demand planning teams. For example, we regularly teach courses tailor-made for SAP APO-DP. This two-day course covers forecasting methods, error metrics and processes implemented in the software package. On completion, participants understand the pitfalls of SAP's modelling approach and how the limitations can be overcome.
If you would like to learn more about our courses, please contact us.
Tab Content: Projects
Short-Term Projects
Working with industry, commerce and government, we support projects on a short time scale bringing valuable insights and knowledge into the organisation for immediate action. We offer a variety of projects formats that have a different level of engagement:
Consultancy
We have led many exciting projects which have drawn upon the broad range of expertise and experience of our faculty members. Consultancy projects can be arranged at short notice and are very flexible in their format. Examples include the implementation of new forecasting models, evaluation and benchmarking of current forecast processes or analysing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Masters Student Projects
During the summer term, our Master students from the Business and Marketing Analytics courses embark on a company based projects. These projects offer a very attractive way of obtaining the latest methods from the classroom and fresh insights into the specific issues facing the organisation. Each project is supervised by an experienced CMAF member to ensure its success. Such projects may often lead to the recruitment of the student after the completion of the project.
Software Development
We advise major software houses on design and implementation of new applications. Our researchers have developed a number of models which are available as open-source software packages that disseminate the latest advances in forecasting methods - please refer to our Resources tab for more information. Projects have also customised software for organisations or advised on the design of more effective Forecasting Support Systems.
Longer-Term Projects
Some projects are more ambitious and will require greater time to collect, analyse and interpret data. These projects need a more significant amount of expert resource to yield the greatest benefits. The government is keen to promote the industrial-academic partnerships required for successful longer-term projects and we would be glad to discuss these opportunities with you.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
The KTP Scheme is designed to facilitate knowledge transfer from the University to the industrial partner. As part of this, it provides academic support for the fast-track development of recent graduates into industrial management. The graduate, based in the company and supervised by a member of the centre over a typical period of two years, works on a project or linking projects identified by the company. The cost to the company is subsidised by the KTP scheme, making it an attractive proposition to an organisation with a major development need.
Doctoral Research Projects
This project type will give you chance to obtain a leading edge of innovation to your competitors. Research is undertaken over a three or four year period on a jointly agreed problem with the client. The cost of sponsoring a student can be reduced through sponsorship by the government or through the funding from the UK research councils.
We are proud to have worked with a range of national and global organisations such as those below.
If you would like to learn more about our projects, please contact us.
Tab Content: Resources
Open-source R packages maintained by centre members
- diffusion - a collection of models to forecast the diffusion of new products.
- greybox - a toolbox for selecting and combining forecasting models.
- MAPA - contains functions to forecast with a Multiple Aggregation Prediction Algorithm (MAPA).
- nnfor - contains functions for automatic time series modelling with neural networks.
- smooth - allows forecasting with exponential smoothing and ARIMA functions.
- tsintermittent - for analysing and forecasting intermittent demand and slow-moving items.
- tsutils - a collection of time series analysis and forecasting functions.
- thief - Methods and tools for generating forecasts at different temporal frequencies using a hierarchical time series approach.
- TStools - a GitHub repository with new (often experimental) functions from CMAF members.
Research blogs written by centre members
Books published
Whitepapers
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