Previsione delle vendite e pianificazione della produzione: quale ruolo riveste la “forecast accuracy”?

This paper aims to investigate, by means of a literature review, the difficulties and, at the same time, the importance of measuring sales forecast accuracy as an indispensable prerequisite for the improvement of both sales forecasting activities and production planning processes. To achieve this objective, three fundamental and closely related issues are analyzed: the role of sales forecasts in production planning, the variety of forecasting techniques and the main aspects of sales forecast accuracy measurements. The literature analysis highlights how the measurement and the sharing of data on forecast accuracy can improve the firm’s decision-makers attitude to using the forecasts and to formulating decisions on production resource allocation, consistent with the level of uncertainty of the forecast.