Demand planning

Every buying and production decision starts from the forecast. The Demand Planner records demand per product, per warehouse, per time bucket: the statistical forecast, the sales team’s override and the consensus figure everyone agrees to plan against. Actual demand is recorded beside it so accuracy can be measured. Forecasts sit under a named version, such as the baseline, a sales scenario or the locked plan, and each version moves from Draft to In Review, Approved and Locked. Older versions are Superseded, never overwritten.

Time buckets are weeks, months or quarters with a start and end date and a fiscal period. A bucket is Open while planners can change it, Frozen when the near term is fixed, and Closed once it is past. MRP runs against a forecast version over a horizon and produce replenishment suggestions: create a purchase order, a transfer or a production order, or do nothing, each with the net requirement, the need-by date and a suggested supplier.

• Consensus per bucket. Statistical, sales and consensus figures sit side by side for each product, warehouse and bucket.
• Versions locked before MRP. MRP runs against an approved or locked version, so the plan behind each suggestion is known.
• Suggestions reviewed, then actioned. The planner reviews each suggestion and actions it, ignores it, or lets it expire.

Agree the bucket granularity for each horizon, for example weeks for the next quarter and months beyond. Agree the freeze window. Agree who may override the statistical forecast and who approves the consensus version. Agree the MRP horizon and how often it runs. Decide how expired suggestions are reviewed.

For March, the statistical forecast for a 5 kg bag of resin at the Dallas warehouse is 1,200 units. Sales expects a large customer order and overrides to 1,600; the consensus meeting agrees 1,500. The planner moves the version to Approved and then Locked. The MRP run that night, over a 90-day horizon, finds 400 on hand, 200 allocated and safety stock of 300, and suggests a purchase order for 1,600 from the primary supplier, needed by February 20.

The planner reviews the suggestion and actions it. The buyer’s purchase order then carries the reference back to the plan. In April, actual March demand comes in at 1,430, and the accuracy figure for the bucket is recorded against the locked version.

• Replenishment Suggestions — New and reviewed suggestions with product, warehouse, net requirement, action, need-by date and supplier.
• Forecast Versions — Versions by status with type and lock date.

• Forecast to replenishment: Lock the forecast, run MRP and action suggestions.
• Purchase order to goods receipt: Turn a suggestion into an order and receive it.

Review the data model before loading history.