Background: Forecast Maintenance
Use the Forecast Maintenance (MSF) program to enter a new enterprise forecast period and change an existing forecast quantity. See Road Map for work flow.
This topic has these subtopics:
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Sales and Component Forecasts
You can use this program to enter or display two types of forecast.
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Sales representatives and their managers typically predict the quantity of an item that they are going to sell during a specific period of time. Planning programs use demand from actual sales for all branches in the manufacturing branch's demand group and from the forecast to determine the quantity the manufacturing branch needs to produce.
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You can forecast the quantities of components that you expect to use in the manufacture of parent items in a period. If you selected the Consume component forecast with release? option in the System Options Maintenance (XM) program (Manufacturing Options), you can run the Planning Profile Inquiry (MRD) program and click Peg demand to see consumed and unconsumed forecasts for each period.
Comparison with Forecast Detail Maintenance (MSFD)
Use the Forecast Detail Maintenance (MSFD) program to enter forecasts by branch, sales rep, or customer. The program displays forecasts that you import from an ASCII file with the Forecast Import (FORC) program. You can then change the forecast quantity, if necessary.
Use the Forecast Maintenance program to enter forecasts if you do not want to track the source. Forecast Maintenance displays forecast data entered with Forecast Detail Maintenance or imported with Forecast Import. However, changes you make to forecasts in Forecast Maintenance do not affect the forecasts that display in Forecast Detail Maintenance.
Forecast periods
The program displays the forecast periods that either you entered or were created as a result of sales. A forecast period is defined as a start date with a specified number of days. The period is not based on the manufacturing shop calendar. In other words, if you define a period of 24 days, these are 24 consecutive calendar days, including weekends and holidays.
The program does not allow entering a forecast period that ends after the end-of-life for the forecasted item.
If you use the Spread forecast option set in the Branch Item Maintenance (IMB) program, you can consume the forecast in any created spread periods that are a part of the forecast period entered in this program.
Independent Sales
If you have NOT created a forecast period, the program creates a one-day period when you enter a sales order with the Sales Order Maintenance (OE) or One-Step Invoice Entry (RE) program or convert a quote or imported order into a sales order by running the Quote-to-Order Transfer (EPIB) program. The entry shows the quantity sold and has no forecast in the Indpnd qty column.
After you enter a forecast period, click Recalculate to include the sales order quantities in your forecast period.
If you change the order's expected ship date, the program updates with that change. However, if an item has a future expected ship date and you ship it early, the program does not show this change.
Forecast Variance
For finished goods, the program compares your forecast with actual sales and displays forecast variance for each forecast period. As order processing enters sales, the system is planning for additional sales orders to be received. If the forecast variance is negative, the entire forecast quantity has been consumed.