Section ThreeUtilization of Supply Forecasting Techniques
A survey mentioned earlier also determined utilization rates for
various supply forecasting techniques. The results of this survey
are presented in Table 3-1 in terms of the percentage of
companies using such supply forecasting techniques. As
indicated in Table 3-1, the two most frequently used techniques
are replacement charts or succession planning techniques (66.7
percent) and human resource inventories (66.7 percent). At the
other end of the spectrum, only 7.6 of the companies used
regression analysis while 6.1 percent used Markov
analysis/network flow models. The small proportion of
companies using Markov analysis/network flow models is
consistent with the trend, reported earlier, toward simpler, less
sophisticated techniques that can be used by line managers.^74