DC1 Inventory Control divides the calendar year into forecast periods. Forecast periods, an important part of the system, are the time units in which current statistics, future demand forecasts and historical statistics are calculated and stored for the item/warehouse combinations in the system.
When you initiate DC1 Inventory Control, one of the first things you need to do is define the forecast periods. This is an important decision because once the forecast periods are created, and you have started using the system, it is not easy to change the period definition.
IC control file
The IC control file contains several fields that affect the forecast period handling:
- Forecast period type
- This field defines if the forecast period should be based on weeks or months.
- Time units/period
- This field defines the number of forecast periods to be used per calendar year.
- History years
- This field defines the number of years that the forecast information and demand statistics should be saved in the Forecast file.
- Workdays week/month/period
- These fields define the number of working days per week, month and period.
Note: Once demand data exists in the Forecast file, these fields can no longer be changed.
When the forecast period fields are set up in the IC control file, it is important to keep in mind that the current forecast period will always be part of the future forecast periods. Therefore, you must have at least one future forecast period.
Once the fields are completed you are ready to generate the forecast periods.
Note: See Setting up DC1 Inventory Control for information about how to set up the forecast period fields in the IC control file.
Active forecast period file
The Active forecast period file is used mainly for informational and internal system purposes. In addition, it is used as an error check in several places within the system.
It contains the present calendar time span for DC1 Inventory Control. This includes all historical periods (as defined in the IC control file), the present forecast period and all future forecast periods (one year ahead in time, including the present forecast period).
This file is updated through the job schedule batch program every time the system moves into a new forecast period.
Note: See section Update periods for information about how to run this job and the updates that are made.
The system takes information from the Forecast period file, the IC control file and the Calendar file to create the Active forecast period file. As the oldest historical forecast period is deleted, a new future forecast period is added. Each record in the Active forecast period file represents one (active) forecast period. The file displays the start date, end date and number of working days for each forecast period.
The ID for the active forecast periods is a six position numeric value, CCYYPP, where the first four digits are century and year (CCYY) and the last two are the forecast period ID, as defined in the Forecast period file.
Calendar file
In order to retain historical statistics and future forecasts, the Calendar file must consist of a one or two year history, depending on the number of historical years that you defined in the IC control file. In addition, it must contain one or more years into the future. It is therefore recommended that you set up the Calendar file for the coming two years, remembering to add another year at the beginning of each calendar year. By doing so, you will always have at least one year ahead in the calendar file. See Loading data in the DC1 Distribution base system for more information.
Enquiries and printouts
- IC control file enquiry
- Active forecast period enquiry
- Forecast period enquiry
- Forecast enquiry
- Forecast period printout