Intermittent Demand Forecasting with Deep Renewal Processes

Abstract: Intermittent demand, where demand occurrences appear sporadically in time, is a common and challenging problem in forecasting. In this paper, we first make the connections between renewal processes, and a collection of current models used for intermittent demand forecasting. We then develop a set of models that benefit from recurrent neural networks to parameterize conditional interdemand time and size distributions, building on the latest paradigm in "deep" temporal point processes. We present favorable empirical findings on discrete and continuous time intermittent demand data, validating the practical value of our approach.