Review of Croston's method for intermittent demand forecasting

Abstract

Accurate demand forecasting is of vital importance in inventory management of spare parts, while the intermittent nature makes demand forecasting for spare parts especially difficult. Generally, intermittent demand appears at random, with many time periods showing no demand at all. Croston's method is widely used to predict inventory demand when it is intermittent. This paper gives a review of Croston's method for intermittent demand forecasting. Some limitations of the current Croston's method and its variants have been summarized and analyzed, and then the potential direction for future research has been suggested.