Abstract:
The importance of the demand forecast can be seen in decisions taken by retailers,
suppliers, producers. Because supply must match demand in order to avoid extra costs
incurred, hence demand must be forecasted accurately. While studying literature it has
been found that, one of the most important parameter that influences demand and
henceforth its forecast is; inaccuracy in inventory data. Inventory is considered the most
important asset in many businesses and demand forecasts relies on it. If the former is
inaccurate, the latter will show erroneous results. The underlying research is carried out
to exactly identify the influence, with the help of sample data from Cantt General
Hospital, Sialkot in a five year period time commencing from 2009 till 2013 (till
November). With inventory inaccuracy being the independent variable, relative effect is
seen with dependent variable i.e. demand forecast. Results show that presence of
incomplete info vis-à-vis inaccuracies in data specifically inventory records can
negatively influence demand estimates and its future forecasts. It is because of having not
a good record keeping system. Even the date that is recorded is manually taken and in
this way some of the data gets lost. So, no proper data record keep is maintained that had
lead to inaccuracy in data that had made a negative impact on demand estimation and its
future forecasting. Either the forecasts are overestimated or underestimated. Both cases
are unfortunate for the continuous growth of a business and thus prove a daunting feature
in successful supply chain management.
