Forecast

Consumption-Part 1
Understanding the Basics and Procedure

Bestowal Systems and Services Private Limited

CREATED BY: SUMEET KALE

 Forecast Consumption
1. Why Forecast Consumption is needed?
If the input key figures customer demand or independent demand include forecasts and sales
orders, and if a new sales order is then placed, the forecast needs to be reduced by the sales order
quantity. Otherwise, the planning algorithm will consider the demand quantity twice
1. Once as the forecast
2. Once as the actual sales order.
2. Required key figures for Forecast Consumption
I. Input Forecast
II. Input Sales Order
III. Output Open Forecast
IV. Output Total Demand
I. Input Forecast: CONSENSUSDEMANDQTY (Consensus Demand Plan Qty)
 This key figure represents the forecast that is available for consumption.
 Also represents the demand planning output after considering sales history, considering
future sales order, statistical forecasting algorithm & adjustments on top management.
II. Input Sales Order: OPENORDERSQTY (Total Open Order Qty)
 This key figure represents the actual sales order.
 Sales order would be for the future, for next day, for next week, for next month etc.
Systems consumes sales order from the forecast & gives 2 outputs.
III. Output Open Forecast: FORECASTOPENOUTPUT (Forecast Open Output)
 This key figure represents after consumption what is available.
 This key figure is filled by the forecast consumption algorithm & represents the open
forecast.
 Output Open Forecast = Input Forecast - Consumed Forecast
IV. Output Total Demand: TOTALDEMANDOUTPUT (Total Demand Output)
 This key figure represents after consumption what is available.
 This key figure is filled by the forecast consumption algorithm & represents the total
demand.
 Output Total Demand = Input Sales Order + Output Open Forecast

NOTE:
AT WHAT LEVEL WE WANT TO CONSUME THE FORECAST?
Generally, we used this planning level. It is varying by business to business.
WK-PROD-LOC-CUST OR WK-PROD-LOC-CUST-SBU (SALES BUSINESS UNIT)
 3. Forecast Consumption Profile (Map the key figure & planning area details
etc.)
Note: When configuring the key figures in your planning area, you must select either Input for TS Forecast
Consumption or Output for TS Forecast Consumption (as appropriate) from the I/O for TS Forecast
Consumption dropdown.

Refer below screenshot.

4. Maintain Master Data: Forecast Consumption (Mode & Period of
Consumption)
 The forecast consumption mode in SAP IBP defines the strategy by which a sales order
can consume the forecast
 Similar to SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization (APO) and SAP Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) systems, SAP IBP provides the flexibility to maintain
different forecast consumption modes by which the customers can execute the forecast
consumption strategy according to their business needs.
 In IBP for supply, different modes of forecast consumption are defined in the master
data type FORECASTCONSUMPTIONMODE. Refer Table 1.

 The attribute DIRECTIONID (forecast consumption direction) of master data

type (MDT) FORECASTCONSUMPTIONMODE defines the strategy (i.e. direction)
in which a sales order should consume the forecast requirements.
 The attributes BACKWARDPERIODS (number of backward consumption periods)
and FORWARDPERIODS (number of forward consumption periods) define the
number of periods a sales order can consume in either direction. The default value for
these attributes is “0” periods. Let's take a closer look at the various DIRECTIONIDs
available.
a) First Forward and then Backward (DIRECTIONID = 0)
o First, the sales order will consume the forecast within the same bucket as itself, and then, if
there is a quantity of sales order that has not consumed forecast, it will try to consume
forecast in the forward direction limited to the number of periods specified in the attribute
FORWARDPERIODS.
o In the event there are still quantities in the sales order that have not found a forecast to
consume, it will take a backward step limited by the number of periods in the attribute
BACKWARDPERIODS.
o Refer below Fig. 1
b) First Backward Then Forward (DIRECTIONID = 1)
o If there are any quantities of sales orders that do not consume forecast, they try to consume
forecast in a backward direction limited to the number of periods defined in the attribute
BACKWARDPERIODS, then if any quantities of sales orders haven't consumed forecast, it
will attempt to consume forecast in a backward direction.
o When there are sales orders left that have not found a forecast to consume, they will be
consumed in a forward direction limited to the number of forward periods defined in the
FORWARDPERIODS attribute.
o Refer below Fig. 2
c) Forward Only (DIRECTIONID = 2)
o First, the sales order will consume the forecast within the same bucket as itself, and then, if
there is a quantity of sales order that has not consumed forecast, it will try to consume
forecast in the forward direction limited to the number of periods specified in the attribute
FORWARDPERIODS.
o After this, if there are still sales orders that cannot be forecast to consume, it will stop and not
hunt backwards.
o Refer below Fig. 3
d) Backward Only (DIRECTIONID = 3)
o If a sales order is in this mode, it will first consume forecasts that fall into the same bucket as
the sales order, and if there is any quantity that has not consumed forecasts, it will attempt to
consume forecasts in a backward direction according to the number of periods defined in the
attribute BACKWARDPERIODS.
o This means that if there are any sales order quantities that have not found forecast to
consume, it will stop and NOT hunt forward.
o Refer below Fig. 4

 For each forecast consumption direction, you can maintain multiple forecast
consumption modes with different backward and forward consumption periods.
 As an example, refer to forecast consumption modes 105, 113and 114 in the Table 1.
5. Executing Forecast Consumption
a) Once FORECASTCONSUMPTIONMODE is created with the required settings, we
need to assigned it with the relevant products and/or locations and/or customer.
b) In this example I have assigned the forecast consumption mode to the Customer-
Location-Product via Customer Source MDT. A pre-requisite step to do this is to assign
the attribute FCSTCONSMODE to the Customer Source MDT. In this case, we
maintained Forecast consumption mode forward only.(103 code-Refer Table no 1)

6. Forecast Consumption Profile

a) To execute the forecast consumption, we need to define forecast consumption profile,
where we define those key figures which are used for forecast consumption and also the
level at which the forecast consumption is executed. (Refer point no 2 Required key
figures for Forecast Consumption)
b) The forecast consumption profile is defined using the IBP application 'TS Supply
Planning: Forecast Consumption Profiles';
c) Steps for create forecast consumption profile:
d) Select Create- Enable for S&OP Operator.

e) Fill the details & select planning area. For key figure assignments Refer point no 2.
Required key figures for Forecast Consumption
f) Forecast Consumption Level:
 Define the level at which the forecast consumption should be executed. We
maintained PROD-LOC-CUST level.
 Add Product ID, Location ID, Customer ID attribute.
 Forecast Consumption Mode Assignment: Assign the MDT in which you have
assigned the FCSTCONSMODE attribute. In this document I have assigned this
attribute to Customer Source MDT, hence assigned Customer Source MDT. As
discussed above, if you have assigned FCSTCONSMODE attribute to
LOCATION or PRODUCT MDTs, you need to assign the LOCATION or
PRODUCT MDTs accordingly.

g) Click on save. Then select Activate.

7. Create S&OP operator profile
The forecast consumption can be run either as an independent run or be ran as an initial step
of a Heuristics or Optimizer run. To execute forecast consumption as an independent step,
define an S&OP operator of algorithm type TS-Based Forecast Consumption using the forecast
consumption profile defined.
Steps for create S&OP operator profile:
a) Open S&OP operator profile application in IBP system.
b) Select New →TS-Based Forecast Consumption-OK

c) To execute forecast consumption as the initial step of a Heuristics or Optimizer run, define
the forecast consumption profile in the S&OP operator profile of Heuristics or Optimizer.

d) Click on Save.
8. Open Forecast Consumption template in SAP IBP Excel Add-in.
a) Go to New View ⇒From Template
New window will be open.

b) In Template dropdown menu, select “Forecast Consumption” then select

required Time Period. Attribute & key figure will be automatically
selected. Click on OK.

c) Forecast Consumption Template will be open.

d) To enter data in input key figure, select master data workbook ⇒ Create,
as shown in fig.

e) New window will be open. Select fields & key figures as shown in figure.
Time period is start from current technical week up to next 10 weeks for
reference. Click on OK.
 g) Master Data workbook will be open. Enter data in input key figure &
Saved Changes option as shown in figure.

9. Run Forecast Consumption Profile.

a) Go to Planning View sheet. To run the S&OP operator profile, select
Application Job ⇒ Run ⇒ S&OP operator
b) New window will be open. Select Planning operator which will created in step G.
Select time period & other details which we used in planning view. Select Sub
network which will maintained in Location Product MDT. Then select next.

c) New window will be open. Select Run.

d) Profile run notification message will be display on screen.

e) To check status of S&OP profile run, Go to Application Job ⇒ Status ⇒

S&OP operator

f) New window will be open. In that, status of S&OP profile will be display
as shown in fig.
 g) After finish run, ‘Finished’ status shown in status column.

h) In case run is failed then click on ‘Show Business Log’, to see reason of
the fail.
10.Go to Planning View sheet & refresh the sheet.

11. Output key figure result will be shown below. Consumption is set in MDT is
forward direction only. Refer point no ‘E’.