Forecast Solutions

 Forecasting Courses - Forecasting Training

Forecast Solutions delivers forecasting courses that are effective and enjoyable.  We can deliver forecasting training remotely or at your company's own office in UK or Europe.  In either case our demand planning and forecasting courses are led by a highly experienced trainer and consultant.

The introductory forecasting course is a one-day forecasting training that gives a broad understanding of the main approaches, then goes on to give details on some of the most common methods.  It also includes help with the challenges around forecasting for new products and promotions.  The two-day demand planning course incorporates the content of the introductory forecasting course and goes on to give a more detailed forecasting training, the basics of stock policy including safety stock calculations and an introduction to sales and operations planning. 

All of our demand planning and forecasting courses are supported with worked examples using Excel and delegates are left with a number of working templates for some popular and practical methods.

Our forecasting training is well established and suitable for a wide range of business sectors.  Because forecasting process and methods vary in different sectors we aim to tailor course content and level of detail as closely as possible to meet the needs of the delegates and their companies.

Our main courses:

 Prices 

For prices please complete a quotation request form giving the course(s) of interest and the expected number of delegates.  Alternatively, feel free to email us at training@forecastsolutions.co.uk

Before booking demand planning or forecasting training please be sure to read our terms and conditions.

A brief description of the main courses follows below or for a more detailed content please follow the links above.


businessman working on forecast at computer

Introduction to Sales Forecasting (1 day)

This introductory training starts with a description of the main approaches to demand forecasting.  Some practical methods for analysing and dealing with seasonality are described.  The course proceeds to give a working knowledge of some simple but effective forecasting techniques including curve fitting, moving averages and simple examples of exponential smoothing.  We also discuss the challenges of forecasting for new products and promotions.

Advanced Forecasting (1 day)

This forecasting course is an optional follow-up to the Introduction to Sales Forecasting Course.  It covers causal analysis in greater detail than the introductory course and introduces a number of additional time-series forecasting methods.  Forecast model selection and optimisation is discussed and worked examples are provided using Excel, including use of the Solver add-on for model optimisation in exponential smoothing models. 

If relevant for the delegates, the relatively new Data Sheet facility in Excel can be covered, together with worked examples using the forecast.ets function.  The advantages and disadvantages of this method can be explained.

Demand Planning and Forecasting Workshop (2 days)

In this course the basics of demand forecasting are covered as in the one-day introductory course described above, then some of the key areas are developed in greater detail.  Also included are forecast accuracy measurement, further forecasting methods and the approach needed for short-term forecasting as compared to medium term forecasting as needed for sales and operations planning. 

This demand planning course also dips into some aspects of supply planning.  The basics of stock policy are covered including some of the basic stock planning methods and the calculation of safety stocks for fast moving and slow moving items.