How to: Set Up Items for LS Forecast

Items and locations need to be set up to be used by LS Forecast. The Retail Item Card and Location Card hold specific fields to activate the usage. Before LS Forecast can perform calculations, the items and locations need to be uploaded to the cloud to be considered.

To set up a Retail Item for LS Forecast

To set up items for LS Forecast group level calculation

To set up LS Forecast Item Links

To upload and synchronize LS Forecast Items to LS Forecast

To compare Items in LS Central and LS Forecast

To maintain additional dimensions for all LS Forecast items

See also

The LS Forecast Items page lets you view and maintain the list of items to be included in the LS Forecast calculation. In this page, you can easily identify the valid LS Forecast items in LS Central and synchronize these items to LS Forecast.

Besides that, you can also make use of the comparison functionality provided in the page to have an overview of the items maintained in LS Forecast, and compare these items with the list of items maintained locally in LS Central.

To set up a Retail Item for LS Forecast

  1. Click the icon, enter Retail Item List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click the New action to create a new item, or select an item from the list to open the Retail Item Card for editing.
  3. Fill in all the mandatory fields, and make sure the distribution setting (in the Distribution FastTab) is set to Status = Active, Ordered By = Central, Ordering Method = Calculate for stores or store groups that you would like to use for replenishment.
  4. In the Merchandising FastTab, select LS Forecast in the Replenishment Calculation Type field.
  5. Click Process - Replenishment Control Data to open Replenishment Control Data.
  6. Fill in the LS Forecast Method, LS Forecast Calc. Horizon, Confidence Factor Code, and Safety Stock Calculation fields. For more information on the replenishment data fields that are used by LS Forecast, see LS Forecast.
  7. If you want to define a deviation of replenishment parameters for a certain variant and location, click the Item Store Records number in the Replenishment Factbox in the Replenishment Control Data page to open the Replen. Item Store List.
  8. Fill in the necessary fields, including LS Forecast Method and LS Forecast Calc. Horizon. For more information, see Item Store Record.
  9. Go back to the Retail Item Card, and in the LS Forecast FastTab, assign Additional Dimensions if you wish to provide LS Forecast with more supplemental data.

Note: You can also assign a Replen. Data Profile with Replenishment Calculation Type LS Forecast and use it with an item. For more information see Data Profile.

To set up items for LS Forecast group level calculation

By default, the LS Forecast calculation is done for each combination of item, variant, and location. Each unique combination will consume one unit of LS Forecast calculation and you have the option to reduce the number of combinations, by grouping the variants from the same item to be calculated as an aggregation.

With the group level calculation enabled, LS Forecast will see the variants as a single item, and will look into the sales history and predict future sales trend of these variants as a total. For example, if an item has 3 variants and each of them is having a historical sales quantity of 10 units in a location, LS Forecast will perform its calculation based on the sales history of 30 units, and the group forecast result will then be broken down into variant level again in LS Central, with the setup that is defined in Variant Sales Bucket.

To enable LS Forecast group level calculation:

  1. Click the icon, enter Retail Item List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click the New action to create a new item, or select an item from the list to open the Retail Item Card for editing.
  3. Click Process - Replenishment Control Data to open Replenishment Control Data.
  4. Select LS Forecast Variant Grouping. The field will only be visible if Show Variant Grouping is selected in LS Forecast Setup.

You may also define the Default LS Forecast Variant Grouping in Retail Product Group and the system will automatically set the value of LS Forecast Variant Grouping in the item.

  1. Click the icon, enter Retail Product Groups, and select the relevant link.
  2. Create a new retail product group, or select an existing retail product group from the list for editing.
  3. Select an option in Default LS Forecast Variant Grouping: 
    • <Blank> - The LS Forecast Variant Grouping field of the item will not be updated.
    • Yes - Set the LS Forecast Variant Grouping field of the item to True, if the selected retail product group is assigned to an item.
    • No - Set the LS Forecast Variant Grouping field of the item to False if the selected retail product group is assigned to an item.

To set up LS Forecast Item Links

  1. Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Item Links, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click New to create a new link between Item and Batch.
  3. Fill in the Division Code, Item Category Code, Retail Product Code, or Item No. that needs to be linked to an LS Forecast Batch.
  4. Fill in the Batch No. to specify which LS Forecast Batch to be linked with the item. You can only select an LS Forecast Batch that is Active and not Pending Sync.
  5. Fill in the Sales History to specify how far back the sales history in LS Central should be considered for LS Forecast calculation. The duration is depends on which Forecast Bucket is used, with its minimum length for Sales History required as followed:
    • Daily Forecast Bucket = 28 days
    • Weekly Forecast Bucket = 14 weeks
    • Monthly Forecast Bucket = 12 months

To upload and synchronize LS Forecast Items to LS Forecast

  1. Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Items, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click Maintenance - Update only to calculate changes between the current values in setup tables and this table. If there are any changes pending synchronization, the status is indicated in the Action and Dimensions Sync. fields, either AddModify or Delete.
    • Action - AddModify - A newly created item or the setup of an existing item has been modified.
    • Action - Delete - The item is no longer a valid LS Forecast Item. It will be removed from LS Forecast upon synchronization.
    • Dimensions Sync. - AddModify - New dimensions have been assigned or existing dimensions have been changed.
    • Dimensions Sync. - Delete - All dimensions have been removed.
    Update process is not possible if there are changes which are not uploaded yet.
  3. If Pending Sync. is selected, it means that there are changes pending to be synchronized with LS Forecast. Click Maintenance- Synchronize only to upload the records with changes (based on the Action and Dimensions Sync. fields) to LS Forecast.
  4. Alternatively, click Maintenance- Update and Sync. to calculate changes between the current values in setup tables and this table, then upload the changes to LS Forecast.

The Update and Sync. process is not possible, if there are changes which are not uploaded yet.

Note: You can set up a Scheduler job to synchronize the LS Forecast Items automatically. For more information refer to How to: Schedule Master Data Synchronization.

To compare Items in LS Central and LS Forecast

The LS Forecast Items Compare page provides you with an overview of all the items that are maintained in LS Forecast for all the batches. You can use this page to compare these items with the list of items that are maintained locally in LS Central. This also helps you to easily identify any items that may be out-of-sync between LS Central and LS Forecast.

  1. Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Items, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click Maintenance- Compare (Local vs. Cloud). This helps you to compare the LS Forecast items with the LS Central items.
  3. Items present in LS Forecast but not in LS Central are marked as Not Exist (Local). To delete them from LS Forecast, you can use the Delete Not Exist (Local) action. This deletes the items from LS Forecast. If a Batch No. filter has been selected, then only items belonging to the filtered batch will be deleted from LS Forecast.
  4. Any items in LS Central which are yet to be synchronized with LS Forecast are marked as Out of Sync. You need to synchronize these items with LS Forecast.

Additionally, you can also re-synchronize all the items from LS Central to LS Forecast:

  1. Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Items, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click Actions - Maintenance - Clear and Sync. to clear all records in the LS Forecast Item table and upload the changes to LS Forecast. This will delete all the items in all the batches from LS Forecast.
  3. Click Maintenance- Update only to recalculate the changes and all the items will be updated with AddModify action in the relevant batches.
  4. Click Maintenance- Synchronize only to upload the records to LS Forecast. This will add all the items back into LS Forecast.

To maintain additional dimensions for all LS Forecast items

You can view and configure the additional dimensions of all items on one single overview page:

  1. Click the icon, enter LS Forecast Item Dimensions, and select the relevant link.
  2. Click the Edit List action to edit the additional dimensions assignment.

See also

How to: Set Up Locations for LS Forecast

How to: Set Up LS Forecast Batches