10.4225/03/5934b526b7554 Snyder, Ralph D. Ralph D. Snyder Koehler, Anne Anne Koehler Ord, Keith Keith Ord Forecasting for inventory control with exponential smoothing Monash University 2017 monash:2275 1999 Inventory control Demand forecasting Bootstrap methods Exponential smoothing 1959.1/2275 2017-06-05 01:34:29 Journal contribution https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/Forecasting_for_inventory_control_with_exponential_smoothing/5072374 Exponential smoothing, often used for sales forecasting in inventory control, has always been rationalized in terms of statistical models that possess errors with constant variances. It is shown in this paper that exponential smoothing remains the appropriate approach under more general conditions where the variances are allowed to grow and contract with corresponding movements in the underlying level. The implications for estimation and prediction are explored. In particular the problem of finding the prediction distribution of aggregate lead-time demand for use in inventory control calculations is considered. It is found that unless a drift term is added to simple exponential smoothing, the prediction distribution is largely unaffected by the variance assumption. A method for establishing order-up-to levels and reorder levels directly from the simulated prediction distributions is also proposed.