Improving customer demand and cost forecasting methods |
This project is aimed at improving the hierarchical forecasting of inventory and capacity requirements within supply chains. Self-optimising artificial intelligence (AI) forecasting tools, will be developed, capable of undertaking the search, retrieval, aggregation of data from disparate multimedia sources and for discovering, within this data, inventory demand and capacity cost relationships. This approach will enable improved accuracy and detail in complex forecasting environments to be gained. Innovations and novelty will occur in the core concepts associated with individual AI components, the way these AI components are combined into the overall AI system and the way in which both system and components are self-optimised. This project will revitalise a research area that is of critical importance to industry and has the potential for providing industrial and service sectors with huge cost benefits from reductions in non-added value operating resources.
About the project
This project will address the complex issue of hierarchical forecasting of the inventory and capacity requirements at the individual nodes of supply chains, see SECTION 1, ANNEX 3. This issue is an instance of an applied scientific problem, which is universally applicable to both manufacturing and service supply chains. It is of immense value to UK businesses since it determines the levels of non-added value working capital needed to finance operations and hence their ability to sustain and grow their businesses. The AI forecasting tools to be developed will be fully ALIGNED with the Data and Content Storage, Management, Retrieval and Analysis Technology Priorities since they will need to provide highly efficient content mining techniques capable of the search, retrieval, aggregation and interpretation of high volumes of data from large numbers of disparate multimedia data sources and for the discovery of the inventory and capacity demand relationships from within the collected data. PROJECT CHANGES have been made to the proposal since the Outline stage which involve
- increasing the number of end user partners in response to DTI feedback;
- allocating the Project Leadership to Dr Karl Seare of STSL who has significant project management experience and expertise in both inventory and capacity forecasting.
The new partners have strengthened the project, ie Unipart Logistics Ltd (ULL) provide supply chain products and services and have significant expertise in both inventory and capacity forecasting and Preactor International (PI), who have replaced Greycon, as software vendors of capacity scheduling tools.
Project Progress
will be published shortly