A mega-trend-diffusion grey forecasting model for short-term manufacturing demand

Accurate short-term demand forecasting is critical for developing effective production plans; however, a short forecasting period indicates that the product demands are unstable, rendering tracking of product development trends difficult. Determining the actual developing data patterns by using forecasting models generated using historical observations is difficult, and the forecasting performance of such models is unfavourable, whereas using the latest limited data for forecasting can improve management efficiency and maintain the competitive advantages of an enterprise. To solve forecasting problems related to a small data set, this study applied an adaptive grey model for forecasting short-term manufacturing demand. Experiments involving the monthly demand data for thin film transistor liquid crystal display panels and wafer-level chip-scale packaging process data showed that the proposed grey model produced favourable forecasting results, indicating its appropriateness as a short-term forecasting tool for small data sets.     

A comparison of univariate methods for forecasting container throughput volumes

In this paper, six univariate forecasting models for the container throughput volumes in Taiwan’s three major ports are presented. The six univariate models include the classical decomposition model, the trigonometric regression model, the regression model with seasonal dummy variables, the grey model, the hybrid grey model, and the SARIMA model. The purpose of this paper is to search for a model that can provide the most accurate prediction of container throughput. By applying monthly data to these models and comparing the prediction results based on mean absolute error, mean absolute percent error and root mean squared error, we find that in general the classical decomposition model appears to be the best model for forecasting container throughput with seasonal variations. The result of this study may be helpful for predicting the short-term variation in demand for the container throughput of other international ports.     

基于统一灰色生成算子的三参数离散灰色预测模型及其应用

现有三参数离散灰色预测模型的累加阶数取值范围局限于正实数,导致模型建模能力和作用空间受限。为此,论文首先引入实数域统一灰色生成算子;然后,基于统一灰色生成算子构造了新型三参数离散灰色预测模型,实现了其阶数从正实数到全体实数的拓展与优化,从而使得新型模型具备挖掘时序数据积分特性与差异信息的双重功能;最后,将该新模型应用于某装甲装备维修经费的建模,结果显示其精度优于其它同类灰色模型。本研究成果对完善灰色算子基础理论及提高灰色预测模型建模能力具有重要价值。     

An extended grey forecasting model for omnidirectional forecasting considering data gap difference

To achieve effective and efficient decision making in a highly competitive business environment, an enterprise must have an appropriate forecasting technique that can meet the requirements of both timeliness and accuracy. Accordingly, in the early stages, building a forecasting model with incomplete information and limited samples is very important to a business. Grey system theory is one of the prediction methods that can be built with a small sample and yet has a strong ability to make short-term predictions. The purpose of this study is to come up with an improved forecasting model based on the concept of this theory to enlarge the applicability of the grey forecasting model in various situations. By extending the data transforming approach, this method generalizes a building procedure for the grey model to grasp the data outline and information trend. Specifically, a novel inverse accumulating generation operator is developed to enable omnidirectional forecasting. The research utilizes observations of the titanium alloy fatigue limit along with temperature changes as raw data to verify the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results show that not only can this method expand the application scope of the grey forecasting model, but also improve its forecasting accuracy.     

A novel procedure for multimodel development using the grey silhouette coefficient for small-data-set forecasting

Small-data-set forecasting problems are a critical issue in various fields, with the early stage of a manufacturing system being a good example. Manufacturers require sufficient knowledge to minimize overall production costs, but this is difficult to achieve due to limited number of samples available at such times. This research was thus conducted to develop a modelling procedure to assist managers or decision makers in acquiring stable prediction results from small data sets. The proposed method is a two-stage procedure. First, we assessed some single models to determine whether the tendency of a real sequence can be reflected using grey incidence analysis, and we then evaluated their forecasting stability based on the relative ratio of error range. Second, a grey silhouette coefficient was developed to create an applicable hybrid forecasting model for small samples. Two real cases were analysed to confirm the effectiveness and practical value of the proposed method. The empirical results showed that the multimodel procedure can minimize forecasting errors and improve forecasting results with limited data. Consequently, the proposed procedure is considered a feasible tool for small-data-set forecasting problems.     

The effect of sample size on the grey system model

Some forecasting models have been developed, each has its own application condition. The grey model is used for small sample forecasting, but until now there is no reasonable explanation for the reason why it is not used for large sample. Therefore, in this paper, matrix perturbation theory is employed to explain the reason. The results of practical numerical examples from previous works demonstrate that the small sample usually has more accuracy than the large sample when establishing grey model in theory. Furthermore, we used the grey model with small samples to analyse the trend of syphilis incidence in China.     

Forecasting tender price index under incomplete information

Tender price index (TPI) is essential for estimating the likely tender price of a given project. Due to incomplete information on future market conditions, it is difficult to accurately forecast the TPI. Most traditional statistical forecasting models require a certain number of historical data, which may not be completely available in many practical situations. In order to overcome this problem, the grey model is proposed for forecasting TPIs because it only requires a small number of input data. For this study, the data source was based on the TPIs produced by the Government's Architectural Services Department. On the basis of four input data, the grey model forecasted TPIs from 1981Q1 to 2011Q4. The mean absolute percentage errors of forecast TPIs in one quarter and two quarters ahead were 3.62 and 7.04%, respectively. In order to assess the accuracy and reliability of the grey model further, the same research method was used to forecast other three TPIs in Hong Kong. The forecasting results of all four TPIs were found to be very good. It was thus concluded that the grey model could be able to produce accurate TPI forecasts for a one-quarter to two-quarter forecast horizon.     

A new method to mitigate data fluctuations for time series prediction

Although the classic exponential-smoothing models and grey prediction models have been widely used in time series forecasting, this paper shows that they are susceptible to fluctuations in samples. A new fractional bidirectional weakening buffer operator for time series prediction is proposed in this paper. This new operator can effectively reduce the negative impact of unavoidable sample fluctuations. It overcomes limitations of existing weakening buffer operators, and permits better control of fluctuations from the entire sample period. Due to its good performance in improving stability of the series smoothness, the new operator can better capture the real developing trend in raw data and improve forecast accuracy. The paper then proposes a novel methodology that combines the new bidirectional weakening buffer operator and the classic grey prediction model. Through a number of case studies, this method is compared with several classic models, such as the exponential smoothing model and the autoregressive integrated moving average model, etc. Values of three error measures show that the new method outperforms other methods, especially when there are data fluctuations near the forecasting horizon. The relative advantages of the new method on small sample predictions are further investigated. Results demonstrate that model based on the proposed fractional bidirectional weakening buffer operator has higher forecasting accuracy.     

Forecasting energy demand using neural-network-based grey residual modification models

Grey forecasting models have taken an important role for forecasting energy demand, particularly the GM(1,1) model, because they are able to construct a forecasting model using a limited samples without statistical assumptions. To improve prediction accuracy of a GM(1,1) model, its predicted values are often adjusted by establishing a residual GM(1,1) model, which together form a grey residual modification model. Two main issues should be considered: the sign estimation for a predicted residual and the way the two models are constructed. Previous studies have concentrated on the former issue. However, since both models are usually established in the traditional manner, which is dependent on a specific parameter that is not easily determined, this paper focuses on the latter issue, incorporating the neural-network-based GM(1,1) model into a residual modification model to resolve the drawback. Prediction accuracies of the proposed neural-network-based prediction models were verified using real power and energy demand cases. Experimental results verify that the proposed prediction models perform well in comparison with original ones.     

基于GM-ES-GASVR组合模型的丽江国内旅游需求预测

构建适合于预测丽江国内旅游需求的预测模型,对推动丽江旅游业的发展具有重要意义.研究发现灰色GM(1,1)模型、三次指数平滑模型与GA-SVR模型都适用于预测丽江国内旅游需求,且GA-SVR模型为这三个单项模型中的最优模型.在此基础上,利用变权方法建立GM-ES-GASVR组合预测模型.通过对拟合与测试结果的对比分析,表明GM-ES-GASVR变权组合预测模型比单一模型的拟合与测试效果都有较大改善.     

MODELING AND FORECASTING MONTHLY AVERAGE WATER LEVELS BASED ON THE ELLIPTIC ORBIT MODEL

Evaluation and forecasting of water‐level fluctuation for one river is of increasing importance since it is intimately associated with human welfare and socioeconomic sustainability development. In this study, it is found that time series of monthly water‐level fluctuation exhibits annual cyclical variation. Then with annual periodic extension for monthly water‐level fluctuation, the so‐called “elliptic orbit model” is proposed for describing monthly water‐level fluctuation by mapping its time series into the polar coordinates. Experiments and result analysis indicate potentiality of the proposed method that it yields satisfying results in evaluating and forecasting monthly water‐level fluctuation at the monitoring stations in the Yangtze River of China. It is shown that the monthly water‐level fluctuation is well described by the proposed elliptic orbit model, which offers a vivid approach for modeling and forecasting monthly water‐level fluctuation in a concise and intuitive way.     

GPM(1,1,m)模型及其在中国能源消费预测中的应用

客观准确地预测能源消费,可以为政府制定社会经济发展政策提供重要参考.利用矩阵分析的思想研究了灰色预测模型的建模机理,提出了基于时间多项式的可拓形式GPM(1,1,m)模型,并分析了其理论意义.在此基础上,通过研究了时间多项式对模型参数和预测值的影响,推导了它们之间的定量关系,设计了实际建模中的优化方法和参数估计的一般形式.利用GPM(1,1,m)模型预测中国的能源消费量并与其他灰色预测模型进行对比.根据2002-2017年的数据建立模型,结果显示GPM(1,1,m)模型的精度明显的优于其他模型.     

组合预测模型在能源消费预测中的应用

能源的需求预测是一个复杂的非线形系统,其发展变化具有增长性和波动性,组合预测对于信息不完备的复杂经济系统具有一定的实用性.本文利用我国能源消费的历史数据,采用灰色预测的GM(1,1)模型、BP神经网络模型和三次指数平滑模型进行优化组合,建立了能源消费组合预测模型,实证分析结果表明预测值和实际结果有很好的一致性,可以作为能源消费预测的有效工具.     

Electricity consumption prediction using a neural-network-based grey forecasting approach

Electricity consumption is an important economic index and plays a significant role in drawing up an energy development policy for each country. Multivariate techniques and time-series analysis have been proposed to deal with electricity consumption forecasting, but a large amount of historical data is required to obtain accurate predictions. The grey forecasting model attracted researchers by its ability to characterize an uncertain system effectively with a limited number of samples. GM(1,1) is the most frequently used grey forecasting model, but its developing coefficient and control variable were dependent on the background value that is not easy to be determined, whereas a neural-network-based GM(1,1) model called NNGM(1,1) has been presented to resolve this troublesome problem. This study has applied NNGM(1,1) to electricity consumption and has examined its forecasting ability on electricity consumption using sample data from the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation energy database. Experimental results demonstrate that NNGM(1,1) performs well.     

组合模型在我国能源需求预测中的应用

文章首先比较了不同的能源需求预测方法的特点,并选择确定性加随机性时间序列组合模型对我国能源需求进行预测,然后详细介绍了建模的过程,并对模型预测精度和参数稳定性作了评价,结果表明本文采用的组合模型是一种比较有效的预测方法,最后用该模型对我国2004~2020能源需求进行了预测。     

Logistic模型的预测应用两例

利用灰色建模法对Logistic模型中的参数进行估计,并将其应用于温州人口以及温州民用汽车拥有量的预测上取得了良好的预测效果.     

基于非等时距加权灰色模型与神经网络的组合预测算法

非等时距预测算法在不等时间间隔序列的趋势分析与预测方面具有重要作用．在传统灰色预测理论的基础上,提出一种基于非等时距加权灰色模型和神经网络的组合预测算法．通过构建非等时距加权灰色预测模型,将原始数据序列的平均值作为累加序列初值,将连续累积函数的积分面积作为背景值,对累加序列进行加权处理,以真实反映时间序列发展对预测结果的影响．在此基础上,引入BP神经网络对灰色预测的残差序列进行修正,进一步提高了预测精度．经算例验证,该算法预测精度达到1级,且高于类似算法．     

Using shared sell-through data to forecast wholesaler demand in multi-echelon supply chains

Operational forecasting in supply chain management supports a variety of short-term planning decisions, such as production scheduling and inventory management. In this respect, improving short-term forecast accuracy is a way to build a more agile supply chain for manufacturing companies. Demand forecasting often relies on well-established univariate forecasting methods to extrapolate historical demand. Collaboration across the supply chain, including information sharing, is suggested in the literature to improve upon the forecast accuracy of such traditional methods. In this paper, we review empirical studies considering the use of downstream information in demand forecasting and investigate different modeling approaches and forecasting methods to incorporate such data. Where empirical findings on information sharing mainly focus on point-of-sale data in two-level supply chains, this research empirically investigates the added value of using sell-through data originating from intermediaries, next to historical demand figures, in a multi-echelon supply chain. In a case study concerning a US drug manufacturer, we evaluate different methods to incorporate this data and consider both time series methods and machine learning techniques to produce multi-step ahead weekly forecasts. The results show that the manufacturer can effectively improve its short-term forecast accuracy by integrating sell-through data into the forecasting process and provide useful insights as to the different modeling approaches used. The conclusion holds for all forecast horizons considered, though it is most pronounced for one-step ahead forecasts. Therefore, our research provides a clear incentive for manufacturers to assess the forecast accuracy that can be achieved by using sell-through data.     

Discrete grey forecasting model and its optimization

Although the grey forecasting model has been successfully adopted in various fields and demonstrated promising results, the literatures show its performance could be further improved. For this purpose, this paper proposes a novel discrete grey forecasting model termed DGM model and a series of optimized models of DGM. This paper modifies the algorithm of GM(1, 1) model to enhance the tendency catching ability. The relationship between the two models and the forecasting precision of DGM model based on the pure index sequence is discussed. And further studies on three basic forms and three optimized forms of DGM model are also discussed. As shown in the results, the proposed model and its optimized models can increase the prediction accuracy. When the system is stable approximately, DGM model and the optimized models can effectively predict the developing system. This work contributes significantly to improve grey forecasting theory and proposes more novel grey forecasting models.     

On the properties of small sample of GM(1,1) model

In grey prediction modeling, the more samples selected the more errors. This paper puts forward new explanations of “incomplete information and small sample” of grey systems and expands the suitable range of grey system theory. Based on the geometric sequence, it probes into the influence on the relative errors by selecting the different sample sizes. The research results indicate that to the non-negative increasing monotonous exponential sequence, the more samples selected, the more average relative errors. To the non-negative decreasing monotonous exponential sequence, a proper sample number exists that has the least average relative error. When the initial value of the sequence of raw data of new information GM(1,1) model changes, the development coefficient remains unchanged. The segmental correction new information GM(1,1) model (SNGM) can obviously improve the simulation accuracy. It puts forward the mathematic proofs that the small sample usually has more accuracy than the large sample when establishing GM(1,1) model in theory.