Re-engineering of the forecasting process in a Greek wood-processing company

This paper presents the re-engineering of the forecasting process of a medium-size Greek company operating in the wood industry. The analysis of the existing forecasting process was undertaken with the use of specific techniques, such as personal interviews, the construction of GRAI grids and the design of process charts. The problematic areas were identified as well as the corresponding good practices that could be implemented with the use of advanced planning tools that are integrated to an enterprise resource planning system. The design of the new process charts identified the need for the introduction of new activities and the definition of new performance measurements connected with the accuracy of the forecasting process. The case study presented demonstrated that the forecasting process, including the recognised activities, information input and outputs, and roles and responsibilities of all the involved parties, is of great importance in a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) in order to become able to take advantage of any selected forecasting methods for the determination of the future demand.