Application of the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Exogenous (ARIMAX) with Calendar Variation Effect Method for Forecasting Chocolate Data in Indonesia and the United States

Abstract

Forecasting chocolate consumption is required by producers in preparing the amount of production each month. The tradition of Valentine, Christmas and Eid al-Fitr which are closely related to chocolate makes it impossible to predict chocolate by using the Classical Time Series method. Especially for Eid al-Fitr, the determination follows the Hijri calendar and each year advances 10 days on the Masehi calendar, so that every three years Eid al-Fitr will occur in a different month. Based on this, the chocolate forecasting will show a variation calendar effect. The method used in modeling and forecasting chocolate in Indonesia and the United States is the ARIMAX (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Exogenous) method with Calendar Variation effect. As a comparison, modeling and forecasting are also carried out using the Naïve Trend Linear, Naïve Trend Exponential, Double Exponential Smoothing, Time Series Regression, and ARIMA methods. The ARIMAX method with Calendar Variation Effect produces a very precise MAPE value in predicting chocolate data in Indonesia and the United States. The resulting MAPE value is below 10 percent, so it can be concluded that this method has a very good ability in forecasting.