I've never been much of a fan of forecasting approaches to intermittent demand. In situations like intermittent demand (or other areas where we have little hope of reasonably accurate forecasts), my thinking is "why bother?" If we can't expect to solve the problem with forecasting, we need a different approach.
From articles I've read on the web, it is clear that data is gold in the twenty-first century. Loading, enriching, manipulating and analyzing data is something in which SAS excels. Based on questions from colleagues and customers, it is clear end-users are willing to display data handled by SAS outside
The convergence of digitalization, AI and machine learning that has been integrated into wearable devices has become a boon for many industries, particularly health care. When Fitbit launched its first wearable device in 2009, it clipped on a user’s clothing and utilized an internal motion detector to track the wearer’s
Halloween, and the copious amounts of candy that comes with it, marks the beginning of a continuous stream of tempting foods from October to January. For the 9th year, the SAS Healthcare Center will be gathering excess Halloween candy to donate to NC Packs 4 Patriots, an organization that supports
It can be frustrating when the same probability distribution has two different parameterizations, but such is the life of a statistical programmer. I previously wrote an article about the gamma distribution, which has two common parameterizations: one that uses a scale parameter (β) and another that uses a rate parameter
SAS' Rajesh Selukar introduces you to a new scoring feature.
If my experience is anything to go by, there’s a sizeable number of customers that still have SAS workloads running on IBM mainframes. Now I have tremendous respect for S/390 (I can still navigate TSO/ISPF et al. and started my IT career programming in PL/AS on MVS and VM), but
With the steep rise of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across all facets of society, ethics is proving to be the new frontier of technology. Public awareness, press scrutiny and upcoming regulations are forcing organizations and the data science community to consider the ethical implications of using AI. The need for
This blog post is mostly just a bunch of fun maps ... maps that are labeled (or mislabeled) in various ways, using fun/interesting data. I focus on the 'fun' part, but if you're not careful you might also learn a little about the various ways to add labels to maps
Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is the Netherlands main agency for design, construction, management and maintenance for waterways and infrastructure. Their mission is to promote safety, mobility and quality of life in the Netherlands. They are the masterminds behind some of the most prestigious water projects in the world. In a recent panel
Following is editor Len Tashman's preview of the 2021-Q4 issue of Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting. Preview of Foresight #63 (2021-Q4) FORESIGHT HALL OF FAME Adopting the idea from other journals that recognize outstanding contributions to the field through best paper awards, we are pleased to announce that
Have you ever submitted a stored process, and instead of the expected output, you saw errors or no output at all? Depending on how you submit the stored process, various logs are available to assist you with debugging. This article provides guidance for understanding which situations call for which logs, where to find each log, and what you should look for in each log.
These days, many countries are moving away from coal, and towards natural gas, hydro, wind, and solar as ways to meet their electricity needs. I had heard that some countries still use a lot of coal (especially those countries with large coal deposits), and I was curious which countries use
I'm not sure when it started, but I've had this lifelong situation that began small, I'm sure, and then grew! While I've encouraged it to become a friend, some days it is not. You may ask who or what this friend is. It's a little thing called perfectionism. It can
A genetic algorithm (GA) is a heuristic optimization technique. The method tries to mimic natural selection and evolution by starting with a population of random candidates. Candidates are evaluated for "fitness" by plugging them into the objective function. The characteristics of the better candidates are combined to create a new
In this Q&A with MIT/SMR Connections, Iain Brown, SAS’s head of data science for the United Kingdom and Ireland, discusses some key risks, ethical issues, and platform questions that organizations should consider before adopting AI and takes a quick look at current and emerging AI trends. Q: In your view,
Every year, the SAS Championship brings a week of sports, leadership and literacy activities to the Raleigh area. Take a minute to enjoy this photo album from the week, and visit the SAS Championship online or on Twitter to learn more about the tournament, the winners and the fundraisers.
If you’ve switched on the news recently, you’ll have noticed how the words “supply chain” have now become part of Britain’s everyday vocabulary. From fuel shortages at petrol stations to the terrifying prospect of a Christmas turkey shortage, we’ve suddenly become aware of how precarious our society is, and how
The social and economic impact of COVID-19 has dramatically affected supply chains and demand planning across all industries. Then there’s the Amazon effect, which has led to sky-high consumer expectations of the ordering and delivery process. Demand planners for retailers and consumer goods companies have quickly realized they have no
SAS' Bahar Biller, an operations researcher, details how to develop a supply chain digital twin.
This article uses an example to introduce to genetic algorithms (GAs) for optimization. It discusses two operators (mutation and crossover) that are important in implementing a genetic algorithm. It discusses choices that you must make when you implement these operations. Some programmers love using genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms are heuristic
Recently, the news has been all abuzz about William Shatner traveling into space. This was a cool event because he's the oldest person who has traveled into space (at 90 years old) ... and he was also the iconic Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek television series. This got
By Adam Goldsmith, Insurance Specialist, SAS UK & Ireland Insurers have the near-impossible task of keeping customers satisfied with the service they're given whilst ensuring costs are controlled to ensure profitability. At the point a customer makes a claim, it is at a point of high stress and emotion, but
"Now what? Responsible artificial intelligence (AI)? You're probably going to tell me that this is going to interfere with how I go about AI." Yes, I am. There's a whole list of nations coming up with strategies on AI. Check out this world map where each colored country is having a
More than four decades ago, SAS developed a breakthrough system that helped farmers and researchers better understand and analyze crop yields and livestock production. It was pioneering work that laid a foundation for the emerging field of advanced analytics. While SAS has continued to grow and serve many other industries,
Leonid Batkhan introduces multipurpose TRIMS function that removes any leading, trailing or both leading and trailing characters from SAS strings.
Have you ever thought of a sweet potato as ugly? These tuberous, root vegetables are a holiday staple, but the sweet potato industry prefers a certain size, shape and weight for them to make it to your grocery store. Many farmers even leave the potatoes deemed “ugly” in the fields,
Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are one of the newer machine learning algorithms that data scientists are tapping into. When I first heard it, I wondered how can networks be adversarial? I envisioned networks with swords drawn going at it. Close… but I can assure you that no networks were harmed in the making of this article.
There are many reasons why you might want to encrypt data. I use a SAS program to encrypt a list of logon names and passwords. Before we get started describing how to encrypt data, let's discuss some basic concepts concerning encrypting and decrypting data. All computer data is stored as
A calorie is not a calorie and the advice to simply burn more calories than you take in just doesn’t work. While being aware of calories and other macronutrient numbers is important, there is more to the puzzle. Focusing on the quality of food, not just the quantity, is key
