SummaryBusinesses forecast in different ways and for different reasons. For the sake of my current employer, some of the reasons they plan are to make sure there are enough cell phones in stock or even to make sure the company has enough numbers to assign to customers when they purchase wireless service from us. . The following article will compare and contrast various forecasting methods while expanding on the method my current employer uses to forecast sales and Mobile Identification Number (MDN) requirements. Forecasting Mission Forecasting is the ability to plan in advance for future expectations of what the future may hold. For example, companies forecast each year what they believe a particular business should accomplish. A sales department forecasts how many sales not only should the department make as a hole, but how many sales each sales rep should make as well. Every year, meteorologists predict the number of hurricanes that may or may not strike the United States as well as other countries. The above leaves me wondering: what is forecasting? In the absence of words, forecasting involves predicting what may or may not happen in the future. Forecasts could simply be about auto sales, wireless services, or the number and strength of hurricanes. Forecasting is defined as “calculating or predicting a future event or condition, as a result of the study and analysis of relevant data”. (15c, Unknown) There are four basic types of qualitative forecasting, casual relationships, simulation, and time series analysis. The following article will compare and contrast forecasting methods and discuss the middle of the article......ReferencesArsham. H. (2003). Time series analysis and forecasting techniques. Accessed online February 1, 2006 at http://www.elia.jde.aca.mmu.ac.uk/resdesgn/arsham/opre330Forecast.htm#rasofmAuthor Unknown. (15c) Retrieved online from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu Pro Request Library on Monday, January 31, 2006. Chase, R., Jacobs F. and Aquilano N. (2005) Operations Management for Competitive Advantage. 11th edition. Jensen, P. (2004). Operations Management/Industrial Engineering. Accessed online at http://www.me.utexas.edu/~jensen./ORMM/omie/opearation/unit/forecast.Wales, J. (2006). Delphi method. Accessed online January 31, 2006 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_method