Procurement Forecast Assignment selects the most appropriate demand Forecast Formula for products in each warehouse. This formula can be manually set under the Purchasing tab of the Product Master.
The Procurement Forecast Assignment identifies Recurring products, which consists of Active products (that aren't considered Sporadic). To determine the best formula to use, the previous three completed months of demand are evaluated against each available formula. The formula that produces the results closest to the actual usage is applied to the product (by warehouse).
Seasonal products are evaluated against seasonal forecasts only. A product can be identified as Seasonal from the Purchasing tab of the Product Master. Regular products (non-seasonal) are evaluated against all available formulas, making it possible for a regular product to be assigned a seasonal formula.
To modify the parameters that impact procurement, see Procurement Forecast Assignment under the Parameters section of Set forecast parameters.
Note: To assure optimal results, the system runs this process automatically upon End of Month A/R Closing. Since product demand is always changing, formulas should be changed often to keep up with it.
- Go to Purchasing > Forecast > Forecast Parameters.
- Review the rules, and then click OK. The process may take a few minutes to complete.
- Once all formulas have been evaluated and assigned, you will see the results. The results lists the number of products assigned to a formula for each warehouse.
Note on Exceptions:
When Forecast Formulas cannot provide a reasonably accurate predictive forecast, no formula will be assigned to the product. Instead, the product will be identified as a Exception. Optionally, reports can be run to identify Exception products for manual review and formula assignment.
It is also possible to stop a product from being evaluated. In the Product Master, on the Purchasing tab, is an option to Freeze Forecast. When enabled, the product becomes exempt from the forecast assignment process. This is useful if you wish to lock in a particular formula on a product, though is should rarely be used.
See also