When registering forecast for a part, this can be done on part level, by
entering the full forecast for the part in the Master Schedule by Part page.
Forecasts can also be registered per Part and Customer Dimension (Customer,
Customer Stat Group, Market, Region, District or Country) in the Master Schedule
by Customer Dimension page.
When forecasts are registered per Customer Dimension they automatically get aggregated to a full forecast for the part if they are registered for the customer dimension that has been defined to be used for the part in the Master Schedule Level 1 Part page. This aggregated part forecast can be viewed in in the Master Schedule by Part page and will be the base for MS Calculations, same way as if they were registered there directly.
The forecasts per customer dimension will also be aggregated into time periods according to the setting on the MS Level 1 Part. When running the MS Job, this aggregation will take place for the customer dimension (Forecast By) and time period defined. Actual demands and supplies are also aggregated. Also performed deliveries in the period are included in demand. Note that supplies are not linked to customers which means that total supply is all supplies, including receipts within the period and also including initial available quantity on hand for the period.
The forecasts per customer dimension are mainly intended to be used in the
Available to Promise function. By allocating shares of supply or forecasts to
customer dimension you can make sure that customers get their fair share when
entering customer order lines.
However, the forecasts per Customer Dimension
can also be used for follow-up only.
The allocated quantity for a specific customer dimension and period is defined by two parameters, Promise Method and ATP Allocation Method.
Promise Method defines if the allocated quantity should be based on unconsumed supply or unconsumed forecast.
ATP Allocation Method defines how the total available quantity for a period will be allocated. First Come First Serve means there will be no specific allocation. If Forecast Ratio the allocation will be based on the customer dimensions percentage of the total forecast for the period. If User Defined Ratio you can manually assign a percentage to the customer dimension and if Fixed Quantity Limit you can manually assign a quantity to allocate instead of a percentage.
The ATP function is used when registering a customer order line or a sales quotation line. For the latter it requires released status and Release for planning flag set.
If Online Consumption is enabled on Inventory Part the available to promise (ATP) function will kick in. If also Forecast By on MS Level 1 Part <> Part the ATP by customer dimension will be run. ATP by customer dimension is an additional step in the ATP calculation and will always be preceded by the common ATP by part calculation. If there is not enough available quantity according to this first calculation, there is no need of running ATP by customer dimension.
The ATP by customer dimension calculation will check if there is enough allocated quantity to the specified customer dimension that the order line belongs to, for the period in which the wanted delivery date lies. The allocated quantity will depend on parameters as described above.
If allocated quantity is less than wanted quantity a warning message will be raised. It is possible for the user to override this warning.
The ATP by customer dimension functionality is controlled by the following parameters
This is the main switch that turns on the MS ATP functionality and also makes demands get updated instantly when saving customer order/quotation lines
Defines if ATP should also cover customer dimension based availability and which dimension that will be used for aggregation per time period and ATP check. Possible values are
Part
Customer
Customer Stat Group
Region
Market
District
Country
Defines if available quantity is evaluated against unconsumed supply or unconsumed forecast. Possible values are
Available to Promise
Unconsumed Forecast
When Forecast By <> Part, this setting will control how the allocation of expected plannable quantity will be calculated. Possible values are
First Come First Served – this is how the system works today
Forecast Ratio – only applicable if Forecast By is set to something else then Part
User Defined Ratio – only applicable if Forecast By is set to something else than Part
Fixed Quantity Limit - only applicable if Forecast By is set to something else than Part
When Forecast By <> Part, this setting will control which time periods that will be used when forecasts and actual demands are aggregated. Possible values are
Month
Week
When Forecast By <> Part this setting will control how the allocation of non-specifically defined customer dimensions will be allowed to use. If free, they can be used also by customers with a specified forecast. If restricted, they can only be used by customers without a specific forecast. Possible values are
Free
Restricted
The aggregation function will aggregate forecasts and actual demands from current date and forwards. Old period data will be kept for analysis. This setting limits the number of old periods to save. Older periods will be deleted by the aggregation job.
This is a default value for the field with same name in Forecast by Periods and Customer Dimension page, which controls the number of historical periods to display on the page.