The business world is bursting with what-if scenarios. One needs to look back no further than the 2020 pandemic to understand that companies must plan for a variety of situations. What if we don’t get that expected contract? What if certain regulations are suddenly expanded or eased? What if a hurricane threatens our plant?

Several approaches used for both immediate and long-term planning help companies set expectations, budgets, production targets and staffing requirements while preparing for business challenges.

Time Series Analysis predicts future business performance based on historical data patterns. By analyzing trends, seasonality, and cyclic behaviors in data, companies can forecast future sales, demand or financial metrics.

The Delphi Method gathers insights from a panel of experts to predict future events or trends. Independent forecasts are aggregated and iterated upon until a consensus is reached.

Regression Analysis models quantify relationships between variables and forecast future outcomes by analyzing how independent variables affect dependent ones. This highly mathematical method works best when there are established causal relationships.

Insights gained from such methods provide the framework to forecast growth while developing contingency. However, none can offer reliable answers in the face of shifting variables. Consequently, a growing number of manufacturers are adopting a more dynamic approach.

Read the entire article here in Industry Week magazine.