Forecasting Overview

Forecasting requires you to project the future requirements for an item or work code based on your past usages of the item or work code. This topic describes how the system plans forecasts as independent requirements and how existing demands, such as service and sales orders, consume the forecasts.

Creating a Forecast

Forecast Creation Utility Material Forecasts Labor Forecasts Original Quantity Forecast Date

How Forecasts are Planned

When you initially create the forecast, the value in the Outstanding Requirement field equals the value in the Original Quantity field. Existing demands (such as orders entered before you run the Material Planner Workbench Generation activity) consume the forecast quantity from this Original Quantity value. The Outstanding Requirements value reflects the remaining forecast quantity that drives independent requirements for planning.

How Existing Demands Consume the Forecast

The Forecast Look Behind and Forecast Look Ahead parameters specified on the Product Codes form or on the Work Codes form set up a time window within which existing orders and other demands can consume a forecast. This window is used when searching for a forecast to place an order against. The search for a forecast works as follows:

  1. The system tries to locate a forecast for the same date as the demand's due date. Old forecasts are ignored if the Forecast Date is more working days into the past than the current date + the Forecast Look Behind value.
  2. If a forecast matching the demand's due date does not exist or is already consumed (an Outstanding Requirement equal to zero), the system starts at the demand's due date minus Forecast Look Behind and searches for a forecast up to the demand's due date plus Forecast Look Ahead.
  3. If a matching forecast is found, it is determined whether the forecast is already consumed. If the forecast has been consumed, the next valid forecast is located.
  4. If the demand quantity is greater than the Outstanding Requirement, the system sets the Outstanding Requirement to zero, and applies the remaining demand quantity to the next valid forecast. If a valid forecast is not found, the demand does not consume any forecasts.
  5. On the Material Forecasts form, Customer and Warehouse are optional forecast fields that also influence the process by which demand is matched to a given forecast. The search is performed in this order:
    • On Customer and Warehouse
    • On Warehouse only when Customer is null
    • On Customer only when Warehouse is null
    • On forecast records when Customer and Warehouse are both null
  6. On the Labor Forecasts form, Customer and Department are optional forecast fields that also influence the process by which demand is matched to a given forecast. The search is performed in this order:
    • On Customer and Department
    • On Department only when Customer is null
    • On Customer only when Department is null
    • On forecast records when Customer and Department are both null
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