Fixable 0

[Former Member]

Dear DP Experts,

I understand that when I make a key figure value as zero (as opposed to blank), it is assured that nothing gets disaggregated to this cell next time as its 0 and 0 mutiplies by anything is zero.

What and why then is fixable 0 option in Planning area?. I can understand the purpose of fixing a non-zero value to protect its value but doesnt 0 simply means that it will reamain zero always

I would highly appreciate an example to make a distinction between simple 0 and fixable 0.

Thanks

BORAT

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Borat,

The fixable 0 option is given if you want to restrict a cell value to 0 and also the disaggregation should not change the value of that cell from 0 to any other value.

E.g : If Total : 100

A = 80

B=0

C = 20

Now if you want to keep value of B always zero then make it 0 fixable.

and if you fix B with 0 fixable then even on chnaging the total value to 150

the new values becomes :

Total : 150

A = 105

B = 0

C = 45

So B value remains 0 in this case.

Hope you got my point.

Regards,

Anurag

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Anurag for the explanation. I still didnt get to the real difference between the two.

If I simply make B=0, wont the additional 50 at total level make the change only to non-zero values as you explained.

Assuming this is pro-rate disagg, after the change at total to 150, we should have

A become 120

B stays at 0

C become 30

I am just curious because I experitmened with and without fixable zero and in both cases results were same just as in the example.

So question was what does a fixable zero do specifically ?. Surely there is some scenario where the results are different but I cant visualize.

We use fixing heavily in our production environment. Fixing at several levels. incl. fixing zeros. The users are trained to make zero fixed just as a matter of "double protection".

Thanks

BORAT

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I would assume the behaviour should be different when the key figure is not dissagregating usint its own values, but another key figure values. In that case fixing ceros will probably influence the result (if there are not zeros in the same level, of course). Have you tried that particular case?

regards,

J.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks James. This sounds sense.

In the above example if the disagg was based on another key figure.. with prop factos as 0.5, 0.2 and 0.3, changing the total to 150 may apply thus..Assume A. B and C are actual customers or locations.

IF 0 is NOT fixed

A becomes 80 + 25 = 105

B may become 0 + 10 = 10

C becomes 20 + 15 = 35

IF 0 is fixed

case1 : Based on another key figure

A becomes 80 + 25 = 105

B stays 0

C becomes 20 + 15 = 35

case 2: Based on its own data (4:0:1)

A becomes 80 + 40 = 120

B stays 0

C becomes 20 + 10 = 30

Conclusion:

It definately makes sense to fix zero's ALWAYS (fixable zero) as that gives you control over disaggregation of data esp. when demand planning happens at more aggregate levels in general (e.g. Product, product family, brand etc) and supply planning (has to) happens at some dimension of customer and product.

With fixable zeros, the quality of disaggregation can be disputed esp. if forecast error is subsequently measured at e.g. customer/location x product level but atleast we can avoid planning and producing stuff at wrong locations. The forecast error at higher level e.g. product may still be ok.

Now this makes sense. I just saved the beginers the trouble of having to read 100 pages on help.com 🙂 to understand this.. blanks, zeros and fixable zeros. I hope so unless there is some other mystery that kicks in on certain conditions.

Thanks

BORAT