Calling the BATS forecast engine

This section provides an overview of the required conditions to call the forecast engines, and to generate forecasts for the selected item and location, when the CallForecastEngine command is used. When the forecast engine is of the type BATS, and the CallForecastEngine command uses a common call for the BATS forecast engine:

• The technique that must be used by the forecast engine is based on the SMP (Small Moving Part) history check when the value of the SMP parameter is TRUE.
• If the value of the SMP parameter is TRUE, the forecast engine uses the Crostons technique and the value of the output parameter SMP Chance of Event, is updated.
• If the SMP parameter is FALSE (the item is not an SMP), the forecast engine uses the BATS technique and the value of the SMP Chance of Event output parameter, is not updated.
• A model is setup by the engine and processes the returned values based on the standard flow.
• The BATS forecast engine only supports generation of data for the period level of months, based on the calendar hierarchy defined for the cycle. The Period Level parameter can be set to Months or CMonths.
  Note:  Forecasting based on calendar months (CMonths) is applicable only when using a part-weeks calendar.

When you call the forecast engine to define and sequence individual items or locations , or to pass parameters and applicable scenario values, you must validate the input measures for each item or location.

A default value is passed to the engine (default=0 for all) for any item or location that does not contain a value for growthDampingStartPeriod, growthDampingEndPeriod, growthDampingFactor, and gdfZeroAfterDamping. When a value is not specified for Growth Damping Start Period, Growth Damping End Period and Growth Damping Factor (all are 0, null) for an item or location, Growth Damping is not performed.