Time Series Forecasting by Multiple Products

[CristonS]

Question

I am building a forecast for my company using the Time Series forecasting model. The sample workflow that Alteryx currently provides uses one product to forecast. I have multiple products I need to forecast - is there a way I can add a product column so I could forecast for all the products at one time?

Answer

The tools you're looking for are the TS Factory Tools, available in the Predictive District in the Gallery:

These tools estimate time series forecasting models for multiple groups at once using the autoregressive moving average (ARIMA) method or the exponential smoothing (ETS) method; they also provide forecasts from groups of either ARIMA or ETS models for a user-specified number of future periods.

Just like the original tools, the ETS method in the TS Model Factory does not allow fields related to the target variable (covariate fields) to be used in the model creation. However, the Autoregressive Moving Average (ARIMA) method does allow the use of covariates.

There's a sample workflow that demonstrates these tools with a use case involving bookings and website traffic for a hotel chain with four locations in the Denver metro area.

Happy Alteryx-ing!

[dfcloete]

Hi There

What happened to the TS Factory tool? I can't find it in the Time Series ribbon? Also can't find the Predictive District ribbon.

I'm running 11.0.3

Regards

Daniel

[CristonS]

Hi @dfcloete - you can find those tools in the Predictive District of the Gallery.  You may need to re-download them - they should transfer to your new version after upgrade, unless the new version was non-Admin/ Admin, or the upgrade installation location was different, etc.

[JustinJones]

@CristonS The TS forecast factory tool is throwing an error when uploading a workflow to our internal gallery saying the input #2 (optional covariate input) is not initializing. failing check

[CristonS]

hi @JustinJones - I believe that's a metadata warning from the R tool.  Does the workflow run?  If not, I'd recommend emailing support.  Thanks!

[stevecss]

So does the TS Factory tool still exist? I'm a new user here and I couldn't seem to find it. I do have the admin version. Thanks.

[stevecss]

Never mind, i found my own answer after reading the description again. I found it here: https://gallery.alteryx.com/#!

[DiegoCamposDurand]

Hi @CristonS,

Could you tell me how can I access to the sample workflow you mention below?

Thanks for your support.

[CristonS]

hi @DiegoCamposDurand & @stevecss 

The TS Factory workflow and macros are located in the Predictive District of the public gallery. After download, you can add them to your tool palette in Designer.

Cheers,

Criston