Demand plan process

The first step in this planning process is to set up a demand plan hierarchy in the Demand plan hierarchy table. The demand plan hierarchies are used to define the different summary levels for a demand plan.

Each hierarchy set can include up to nine hierarchy keys that are retrieved from the Sales related keys table. You can combine both item and customer related hierarchy keys. At least one item related key must be used for a hierarchy.

See About demand plan hierarchies for more information.

The demand plan is created on the Work with demand plan panel. On this panel you define the set-up of the plan and the parameters that drive the demand plan detail creation. You must, for example, define what type of demand plan you want to create and what the base of the demand plan should be. The demand plan must also be connected to a hierarchy.

See Create a demand plan for instructions.

By narrowing down the values that are included in the selected hierarchy keys, you define what you want to include in the forecast that will be generated later on in the process.

Caution: If no selection is made, all values belonging to the selected hierarchy and its key levels will be included. The result might be a demand plan that is too big and too slow to handle.

You can define the selection using the following functions:

• Define selection parameters on the Work with demand plan, Selection panel. On this panel you can, for example, state specific item codes for an item group that should be included in the DP detail creation.
• Set Incl zero quantities to NO on the Demand plan header so that the system only creates details for key value combinations that contain data. If YES, all combinations will be included.
• Make sure that the period interval that is defined on the Demand plan header is not too long.
• Specify what items should be available for demand planning using the Demand plan (Y/N) field in the Item file.

See Narrow down the demand plan selection for instructions.

If you have changed the selection criteria you might have to update the demand plan to get accurate figures. To do this you can either refresh or re-create the demand plan.

• Refresh the demand plan
  When you refresh the demand plan, no previous information is changed. The system will only retrieve new information if a change in the selection parameter has been made. This might be the case if a new item group has been selected, or if a new item has been added to a previously selected item group. The refresh option is available on the Work with demand plan panel.
• Re-create the demand plan
  When you re-create the demand plan all previous information is deleted and new data is retrieved according to the selection parameters. Earlier manual updates of shares or standard sales price are disregarded and will lose effect. This is done by setting Re-create to YES on the Work with demand plan panel. When the demand plan is re-calculated, new groupings of items and customers are considered, new shares (proportion values) are re-calculated and the forecasting unit value is retrieved. The new standard sales price is also calculated.

See Update the demand plan for instructions.

You have to create the details for the summary levels. What information is retrieved depends on the selections that have been made (see above) and on the base that has been defined on the demand plan header. The demand plan can be based on:

See Create details for the demand plan for instructions.

Those who are responsible for certain items or areas must now maintain the retrieved figures in the demand plan. Change the status to 2 (delegated) and delegate the demand plan to salesmen, item responsible people or item planners by entering a code in Delegated to on the Work with demand plan panel.

See Delegate the demand plan for instructions.

The people to whom you have delegated the demand plan will now have access to the demand plan where they can maintain the forecast figures based on their particular knowledge and experience. When this work has started you can change the demand plan status to 3 (work in progress) on the Work with demand plan panel.

Note: You can define restrictions in the system so that people only have access to the areas for which they are responsible.

You can change the sales forecast, the forecast change, the season profile, the currency and the calculation rule. The following updates can be made:

• If you enter a total sales forecast value, but no season profile, and period values exist, then the entered total value will be portioned to period values using the existing period values.
• If you enter a total sales forecast total value together with a season profile, then the entered total value will be portioned according to the season profile.
• If you enter a positive (+) or negative (-) percentage value in Forecast change the forecast values will be changed according to this value.

  Note: When the total of a demand plan is changed on a certain summary level and the forecast is updated, then the share of the total forecast for that summary level and any higher levels can be automatically adjusted in proportion to the changed forecast. This is defined in Adj share of tot IDP in the IC control file.

When the forecast figures have been maintained, they can mark each level record as revised and completed. You can supervise the ongoing process to keep track of when all records have been revised and completed.

See Maintain the forecast figures for a demand plan and Work with share of total for a demand plan for instructions.

When all forecast figures have been revised and completed, you can delegate the demand plan to another group of people for revision. For example, if the demand plan was first created and revised from a sales point of view, the production planners can now revise it. If necessary, they can connect an alternative hierarchy to the demand plan. By creating an alternative hierarchy they can select the key values that are of interest from the production planning point of view. Alternative hierarchies are created on the Work with demand plan, Alternative hierarchies panel.

Note: Alternative hierarchies can only be created if details have been created for the demand plan, but they cannot be maintained if the demand plan has been activated.

Note: You can define restrictions in the system so that the alternative hierarchy only can be maintained or viewed by the person who is defined as responsible for the demand plan or for the alternative plan.

See Create alternative hierarchies for the demand plan for instructions.

The changes that have been made in the alternative hierarchy are not automatically updated in the base demand plan. When the alternative hierarchy has been created and maintained, you have to rebuild the base demand plan in order to synchronise the information. You do this by selecting the Rebuild option on the Work with demand plan panel.

Note: When a demand plan has been either re-created or refreshed, the rebuild function must always be executed if alternative hierarchies exist. This is also necessary when a plan is rolled to ensure that the period changes are performed in all alternative plans as well.

See Rebuild the demand plan for instructions.

When all levels of the demand plan have been revised and completed, and when the rebuild function has been run, it is time to activate the demand plan. You activate the plan by changing the demand plan status to 4 (activated) on the Work with demand plan panel. When this is done, the demand plan will start affecting the forecast figures in DC1 Inventory Control.

See Change the demand plan status for instructions.

When an inventory calculation is processed in DC1 Inventory Control, all demand plans with this status will be retrieved. The IC forecast is created based on the demand plan information. See Run the inventory calculation for instructions.

Active demand plans should be rolled periodically. When a demand plan is rolled, the system displays the next set of periods. For example, if the system displayed the periods 1-6 before the roll, it will display periods 2-7 when the roll has been confirmed. You do this by selecting the Roll plan option on the Work with demand plan panel.

When the demand plan has been rolled, you can analyse and maintain the last period. The status of the demand plan is changed to 3 (work in progress). You will therefore have to activate the plan again when any necessary changes have been made.

Note: You might have to go through most of the steps above each time a demand plan has been rolled, i.e. delegating, maintaining and rebuilding the plan.

See Roll the demand plan for instructions.

When demand plans are transferred to DC1 Business Information Warehouse (BIW), any alternative plans for which Transfer to BIW is set to YES are also transferred. You do this by selecting the Update BIW option on the Work with demand plan panel. The following information is created during the update:

• A new budget number will be automatically created for each demand plan/alternative plan with the selected keys according to the Demand plan/alternative plan.
• For a demand plan of type promotion, the promotion ID will also be defined as a selected key.
• The budget will be created for balances types Sales net value and Sales quantity. Depending on the forecasting unit in the demand plan, budget for one of the balance types Sales cost value, Sales net weight, Sales gross weight, Sales net volume and Sales gross volume will also be created.

  Note: For an alternative plan, only the balance type that corresponds to the forecasting unit is created.

For a demand plan of type normal forecast, update BIW can be performed multiple times. This will provide means to save historic demand plan data in BIW before performing the roll plan function.

If the demand plan period type is week, it is important that you only run the update to BIW once every month since the period in BIW is month.

See Update BIW (Business Information Warehouse) with information from demand plan for instructions.

By changing the status to 5 (filed) on the Work with demand plan panel, the demand plan is no longer active in the system and cannot be maintained. However, you can view the demand plan information in the enquiry functions.