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Supply Chain Glossary - S

Supply Chain Glossary - S

smoothing

The process of averaging data by a mathematical process or by curve fitting, such as the least-squares method or exponential smoothing.

In exponential smoothing, the weighting factor that is applied to the most recent demand, observation, or error. In this case, the error is defined as the difference between actual demand and the forecast for the most recent period. The weighting factor is represented by the symbol <img border="0" src="alpha.gif">. Theoretically, the range of <img border="0" src="alpha.gif"> is 0.0 to 1. Syn: alpha factor, smoothing factor.


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