Forecasting techniques

Forecasting can be broadly considered as a method or a technique for estimating many future aspects of a business or other operation. It is one of the rapidly growing field of business world which is mainly based on strong statistical theory and applications. Over the past few years, there has been lot of research work carried out in predicting the future and making better decisions. This process of research has been led to several developments in forecasting methods. Many of these methodologies have been developed based on sophisticated statistical techniques available in the theory.In management and administrative fields, the need for planning is vital because the lead time for decision making ranges for several years to few days or hours to few seconds. Forecasting is an important aid in effective and efficient planning. Forecasting is a common statistical task where it evaluates decisions about Scheduling of several activities like production, transportation, assignments etc.