Market Segment

In IFS/Demand Planning, a market segment is a special part that shows the historic demand and anticipated forecast of the total market segment. You forecast the market segment the same way that you would forecast an ordinary part. 

You can connect parts or groups to market segments when you perform the setup for the Demand Planning Server (see the Enter General Server Data). When a part or group is connected to a market segment, the market segment will be visible in the forecast graph. In the forecast error graph, the part's market share will be displayed. 

The part's market share is calculated as a percentage between the part's demand and adjusted forecast, and the market segments demand and adjusted forecast. You can change the part's market share, which will also affect the part's adjusted forecast. These adjustments are allowed only in the forecast horizon.

Note that if the market segment part is changed, this will affect all the connected parts (parts that are set to use this market segment). This happens because the part's adjusted forecast is fixed, and the market segment or part's forecast is computed, and each method will produce a different market share. You can avoid this by setting the part to have a fixed marked share, which you can do through the part menu. 

If the parts are set to a fixed market share, the adjusted forecast changes when the market segment forecast changes. The reason for this is that the market share is set to be fixed and for the equating to hold then the parts adjusted forecast has to be changed.

The marked share equation

The market share for a part is calculated like this :