Forecasting Details

The forecasting details page, accessible from Procurement -> Forecasts, shows the forecast details - products, required materials, and action dates.

This page allows:

• creating a procurement forecast,
• updating an existing forecast,
• creating manufacturing orders and purchase orders based on the forecast,
• adding notes,
• exporting the forecast to Excel or PDF.

Jump to:

1. What is a procurement forecast? How does it work?
2. How to create a procurement forecast?
3. How to forecast the materials for multiple sites at once?
4. Tips for using the forecast.

Creating a procurement forecast

For creating a procurement forecast:

1. Go to Procurement -> Forecasts and click Create.
2. Enter the forecast title to identify it (for example, "3rd quarter").
3. Select, whether:
   a) available parts will be considered in the calculation (i.e. available items already in stock, plus available items still waiting to be received);
   b) available parts will be ignored in the calculation.
4. Enter products and quantities that are planned to be produced in the future.
5. Enter the Due date when the products should be available in stock. Available only together with the Backward Production Scheduling functionality.
6. Select whether the forecast should consider current available inventory, or ignore it.
7. Click Calculate materials and timing button. As a result:
   - For every product, the software shows when a manufacturing order should be started.
   - A list of required raw materials is displayed (part, quantity, cost, vendor, last order date). 
   - The forecast is saved.
8. Manufacturing orders can be scheduled to the production plan by checking the products MO column and clicking Create manufacturing orders button. 
9. Purchase orders can be created by selecting the materials PO column and clicking the Create purchase orders button.

Multi-site forecasting

If there are multiple production sites, there are two options to choose from when creating a forecast:

1. Select one site for the forecast.
2. Select option All sites for considering all sites in the forecast.

If a site is selected:

1. The software calculates required manufacturing and purchase orders.
2. The manufacturing orders can be added to the production schedule at the selected site.

If All sites option is selected:

1. The software calculates the total quantity of materials that are required to produce all the desired products.
2. It is not possible to create manufacturing and purchase orders, because these must be placed at particular sites.