Student enterprise project outline

PROJECT TITLE: A comparison of modelling methods: sales forecast

volatility
REFERENCE:

PROJECT OVERVIEW:
The semi-annual refresh of the Argos product range requires 8 weeks’ preparation by the
supply chain. Stock is moved to stores based on an early demand forecast that must be
calculated with very little data. After the 8 weeks, when better data is available, an
improved forecast often leads to further movements of stock, both to and from stores. A
model is required to predict these changes in forecast using data known beforehand.

Argos can provide a set of historical input data at product level for several previous range
refreshes. It can also provide historical data for the product-level target variable: the
change in forecast over the 8 weeks. The project should evaluate the different modelling
methods (e.g. random forest, decision tree, neural network etc.) that can use the input
data to train a model to predict the target. The output should include a recommendation
for a model that Argos can implement to use its prediction for future range refreshes.

TECHNICAL SKILLS
REQUIRED Python

OTHER SKILLS
REQUIRED Project management, time management, interest in data science

OTHER
IMPORTANT Please email Chris Walshaw (c.walshaw@gre.ac.uk) to register interest in
INFORMATION and/or apply for this MSc project.