Terminology used in Demand Planning

The following is the common terminology that you may frequently use in Demand Planning.

• Enterprise demand plan – A single planning workbook that consolidates forecast input from multiple stakeholders to create a unified forecast. It can consist of multiple planning cycles, enabling iterative refinement of forecast based on evolving forecast input dataset. The enterprise demand plan displays two status points:

  • Active – The planning cycle is open and you can edit your forecast.

  • Published – The planning cycle is closed, and you cannot edit your forecast. However, you can view the demand plan.

• Demand planning cycle – The time taken to create and finalize demand plans, which include forecast generation, and collaborating with stakeholders to adjust and publish demand plans.

• Dataset – A collection of data used for generating forecasts, such as historical sales orders or product information.

• Forecast granularity – Defines how you want to create and manage the forecast. You can use a combination of product, location, customer, and channel dimensions. You can also choose the time interval for the forecast data to be aggregated by day, week, month, or year for each product in the dataset. For example, if your forecast granularity is set as Daily, you will see the forecast daily for each product in the dataset.

  Note

  Demand Planning uses the Gregorian calendar for planning. The default start day of the week is Monday.

• Forecast configuration – The set of configurations for forecast generation. This includes the planning cycle configuration, time horizon granularity, and that hierarchy configuration that influences how Demand Planning will generate the forecast.

• System generated forecast – This is also known as the baseline forecast. It refers to the use of the historical data by the system to generate a forecast. It provides initial demand prediction before you apply any overrides.

• Override – A modification that you make to the system generated forecast.

• Published demand plan – The final output of the planning workbook. You can choose to publish the finalized demand plan to downstream inventory and supply planning systems for implementation.

• Product lineage – You can establish links between products and their previous versions or alternate products and set rules around the extent of history that needs to be used for forecasting. For more information, see Product lineage.

• Product lifecycle – The product lifecycle refers to the various stages of a product from introduction to End of Life (EoL). For more information on product lifecycle, see Product lifecycle.

• Demand driver – Factors that directly influence the level of demand for a particular product. For example, advertising and marketing efforts, pricing strategies, and so on. For more information on demand drivers, see Forecast based on demand drivers.

• Forecast lag – The time between when the forecast was created and the actual demand. For example, forecast from January considered for February is considered a one month lag. Similarly, forecast from January that is considered for March is considered a two month lag..

• Forecast Model Analyzer – You can use this tool to execute trial or experimental forecast by varying test conditions and reviewing the results of the different forecast methods. You can use the results to compare and evaluate model performance, ensuring the best selection based on business priorities.

• Forecast Lock – You can use the forecast lock feature to lock specific periods in your forecast to prevent any further edits or adjustments.