Forecast Consumption and Wthdrawal quantities...Reposted since nobody responded

[former_member182607]

Hello Gurus,

I am sure many of you might have encountered this issue.

We use APO Demand Planning for our forecasting process. Forecast is done in Monthly buckets but it is released to SNP in weekly buckets using a Period Split Profile. This is probably one of the more used processes. The problem is the APO system makes the assumption that we are going to sell everything in the same week we planned for that material. Unfortunately it does not happen that way in real life.

The example below is an illustration:

The material has a value of 2 in SNP 2 screen field Period Split, which releases the forecast to the remaining days in the month.

Forecast

Week 1-100 EA

Week 2-100 EA

Week 3-100 EA

Week 4-100 EA

Sales

Week 1-85 EA

When we enter Week 2 our remaining forecast is 315 EA, which we want to distribute to the remaining 21 days(assuming this is Feb of 2013 with 28 working days. We expect the system to put in a forecast in the following manner:

Re-released forecast in Wk 2

Week 2-105 EA

Week 3-105 EA

Week 4-105 EA

But what the system is doing is this:

System behavior

Week 2-133 EA

Week 3-134 EA

Week 4-133 EA

The system completely ignores the quantity sold(which is 'Withdrawal Qty' in SAP language), leading to overproduction of 85 EA already produced and sold. As we proceed to the 4th week the situation gets more 'dangerous'. Assuming I have sold 300 EA by end of Week 3, my production plan should be only 100EA. But the system completely ignores the 300 EA already sold and sends a forecast which looks like this:

System Behavior

Week 4-400 EA

This leads to overproduction by 300 EA.

If any of you have faced this scenario how has this been overcome? Any guidance/hint/help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Subash Nanjangud

[ravi_malpani]

F1 help on Period Split field gives a nice example

Regards,
Ravi

[former_member182607]

Thanks Ravi and DB49 for your response.

Unfortunately no business sells exactly every product every week as forecasted. F1 gives a beautiful example where it is assumed that you do not worry about what was sold actually.

If I release the 'remaining unconsumed forecast' with period split 2 the system wipes out the withdrawal quantities in rrp3, which is not right. Also DB49, I did not know how the response got rejected but apologies.

Thanks,

Subash

[Former Member]

Subash,

If I release the 'remaining unconsumed forecast' with period split 2 the system wipes out the withdrawal quantities in rrp3, which is not right.

Well, it appears to me that your current business process is 'not right' as well.  Let's not quibble what's 'right' and what's 'not right'.  The most important thing is to get a solution that works for you.  In my opinion, SAP never intended for the period split '2' to be used in the way you are currently doing.

In my DP suggestion, you would perform consumption of past periods within DP using Macros.  Therefore, consumption of past periods within SNP is not really necessary.  The monthly demand that you release to SNP would already have been reduced by the sales quantity.  The remaining demand could then be spread to the remaining weeks of the month.

Of course, much easier would be to just use period split '1'.  Or, create some other custom functionality that fits with your business process.

I did not know how the response got rejected but apologies.

??? You rejected the solution http://scn.sap.com/message/14251425#14251425 offered by expert Manimaran when you stated "Thanks Manimaran,,,that is not going to work...."

Best Regards,

DB49

[former_member182607]

thanks DB49....I had a long go back and forth with SAP on this. Their suggestion was to reverse the goods receipts in ECC but that would be countless number of reversals. So I gave it up. I am rying to work on a custom solution iinside of APO. If it works out I will post the solution.

Again thanks..

Subash

[Former Member]

Subash,

Actually, there was a response to your previous post.  You rejected it.

Your scenario is working exactly as I would have expected.  You have selected a period split that does not meet your business requirements. You would normally use period split of '2' when you intend to actually produce and sell the ENTIRE released forecast in the remaining weeks of the month; regardless of what may have happened during earlier weeks of the month.

I believe that if you insist on re-releasing your whole month's forecast each week, that period split '1' is more likely to meet your business requirement.  If you feel this split does not meet your business requirements, you could create a new calculated KF in DP that represents  'remaining unconsumed forecast'; and release this KF using period split '2'.  In this case, your 'locked' DP forecast remains 'locked'.

Best Regards,

DB49