Pedagogical Guidance for Teaching Forecasting in an ERP Environment:
Revamping the Business School Curriculum for Strategic Advantage
Ashok Kumar
Grand Valley State University, USA
Kathryn E. Stecke
University of Texas at Dallas, USA,
Robert Frey
Grand Valley State University, USA
Volume 3: 2009, pp. 109-124; ABSTRACT
Forecasting and ERP expertise are in demand in the current business environment. Because of the financial meltdown, global competition, technological advances, and a growing number of personalization-seeking customers, product demand and lead-time uncertainties can be high. There is a need for businesses to forecast product demand with accuracy and precision despite the variability. In addition, the response lead times permitted for businesses to compete effectively are shorter. Good production plans should be developed quickly. Hence there is a distinct opportunity for business schools to introduce forecasting and ERP in their curricula to gain strategic ascendancy. This paper provides some pedagogical guidance to introduce a forecasting module operating in an ERP environment to a business curriculum. SAP is the most widely used ERP software. SAP-literate faculty can use the material presented here to design a comprehensive forecasting module for classroom delivery at senior and MBA levels. Faculty interested in designing their own forecasting module with a variety of sensitivity analyses can use the data generation routine provided here. This work can also be used by managers, practitioners, and consultants to implement forecasting in their own work. This work should be helpful in making businesses more forward-looking and profitable, faculty more qualified to handle demand and lead time uncertainties, students more technologically savvy and employable, and business schools strategically superior.
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