Demand Forecasting is the process of finding patterns and trends in the historical sales data and making use of this knowledge to produce sales forecast for a future time period. The most common advanced statistical forecasting techniques, such as ARIMA, Seasonal ARIMA, Additive, and Multiplicative models are used to predict future sales demand from sales history. In replenishment, the forecast results allow you to anticipate demand better, so that you can accurately determine what products to order and when to order them.
Fields for Forecast calculation type
LS Central depends on a 3rd party solution to calculate and provide sales forecasts.
In LS Central, the sales history data consists of Item Ledger Entries, Sales History Adjustment, and Out of Stock Days. The master data consists of Items, and Locations. These data can be uploaded to an external Demand Forecasting engine via Web Services or Azure Data Factory.
With the LS Forecast calculation type, the system uses the LS Forecast Entries to calculate and suggest the amount of stock to replenish within a specified period. The replenishment also considers if there are Planned Sales Demands within the stock coverage period and adjusts the calculation accordingly. If LS Forecast Entries are not found, it is also possible to calculate the replenishment based on Average Daily Sales by setting the Forecast Exception Handling to Use Average Usage Result in LS Forecast Setup.
Forecast
The following table is a list of Forecast related tasks with links to the topics that describe them.
| To | See |
|---|---|
| Configure basic Forecast setup. | Basic Forecast Setup |
| Set up locations for Forecast. | How to: Set Up Locations for Forecast |
| Set up items for Forecast. | How to: Set Up Items for Forecast |
| Set up dimensions for Forecast. | How to: Set Up Forecast Dimensions |
| Set up dimension entries for Forecast. | How to: Set Up Forecast Dimension Entries |
| Extend dimensions for Forecast. | How to: Extend Forecast Dimensions |
| View the forecast results downloaded from Forecast (in the form of raw entries or chart). | How to: View Forecast Entries
Replenishment Sales Chart |
| Learn more about the calculation process. | Calculation Process for Forecast |
Fields for Forecast calculation type
Common Replenishment data fields are described in Common Replenishment Data Fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Store Coverage Days Profile |
This field tells the system how many days of sale the inventory at the store is supposed to cover with various factors like Location Closed Days, Inbound Location Handling Time, and Coverage Buffer Days to be considered in stock coverage days calculation, and also automatically adjust the coverage to reflect the days until the next replenishment calculation. When used with the replenishment calculation type LS Forecast, this coverage days indicates how far ahead the LS Forecast Entries will be considered for replenishment. For more information see Replen. Coverage Days Profile. Note: When the Store Coverage Days Profile is not defined, the system directly uses the value from the Store Stock Cover Reqd (Days) field. |
| Store Stock Cover Reqd (Days) | This field tells the system how many days of sale the inventory at the store is supposed to cover. When used with the replenishment calculation type LS Forecast, this coverage days indicates how far ahead the LS Forecast Entries will be considered for replenishment. |
| Wareh Coverage Days Profile | This field tells the system how many days of sale the inventory at the warehouse is supposed to cover with various factors like Location Closed Days, Inbound Whse. Handling Time, and Coverage Buffer Days to be considered in stock coverage days calculation, and also automatically adjust the coverage to reflect the days until the next replenishment calculation. When used with the replenishment calculation type LS Forecast, this coverage days indicates how far ahead the LS Forecast Entries will be considered for replenishment. For more information, see Replen. Coverage Days Profile. Note: When the Wareh Coverage Days Profile is not defined, the system directly uses the value from the Wareh Stock Cover Reqd (Days) field. |
| Wareh Stock Cover Reqd (Days) | This field works the same way as Store Stock Cover Reqd (Days), but here this field tells the system how many days of sale the inventory at the warehouse is supposed to cover. |
| LS Forecast Calc. Horizon | This field tells the system how far ahead the forecast should be calculated for the item. |
| Confidence Factor Code | This field specifies the confidence interval to be used for each item in the forecast calculation. This field corresponds to the Service Level % field in Replen. Confidence Factor. To access the Replen. Confidence Factor page, click the  icon, enter Replen. Confidence Factor, and select the relevant link. |
| Safety Stock Calculation | This field specifies if the Forecast Quantity should use the upper value during replenishment calculation. |
| Replenishment Sales Profile | The system uses the Replenishment Sales Profile to calculate the average daily sales. When the Forecast Exception Handling in the LS Forecast Setup is set to Use Average Usage Result, the system will use the average daily sales as the demand of the item, on the days with missing forecast result entries. |
| Enable Lead Time Calculation | This field tells the system whether the Vendor Lead Time (for Purchase) or Location Lead Time (for Transfer) will be considered during the replenishment calculation for the item. The field is used for the replenishment calculation types Average Usage, Manual Estimate, and LS Forecast.
For more information see Lead Time Calculation. |
| Consider Consumption as Sales | You can select this field if you want the average daily sales calculation to also include Item Ledger Entries with Entry Type Negative Adjmt. and Assembly Consumption. |
See also
Calculation Type – Average Usage
Calculation Type – Manual Estimate
Calculation Type – Stock Levels
Calculation Type – Like for Like