Extended planning horizon
Please note: This feature is only available in the advanced forecasting module.
Are your suppliers quoting longer and longer lead times?
Do you have seasonal items and would benefit from a two-year forecast perspective?
Are you ordering some items for a year ahead?
Do you use look forward days to fill containers or to plan supplier shut-downs that extend your planning horizon beyond 12 months?
The extended 24-month planning horizon functionality has been designed to address these issues. The functionality is described for each of the following areas:
Forecasting - item and macro level
Item stock projection
Central warehouse - item inquiry
Raw materials - item inquiry
Projection module
Supplier module
1. Forecasting
The forecast engine generates forecasts over a 24-month horizon which are visible for individual items and at a macro level.
Item level:
24-months of forecasts are displayed in both the line chart and table of the stock inquiry’s forecast tab. These can be seen on the Forecast tab of the item Inquiry menu option. Changes can be made to the monthly forecasts by clicking the Amend forecast button.
Macro forecast level:
24-months of forecast are displayed in both the Summary view and the year-on-year Comparison. To see this view, click the Forecast menu option.
Both the Adjust items and Adjust totals features display and allow changes to be made to forecasts in the extended horizon. Adjust totals allows for macro-level forecast modeling and changing. The Adjust items functionality is a feature of the Advanced Forecasting Module which allows for multi-item forecast amendment.
2. Item stock projection
The impact of the extended planning horizon on stock levels can be seen on the item stock projection.
The Projection tab on the item Inquiry screen shows the stock levels of this seasonal item for 24 months.
3. Distribution Center - item inquiry
The extended horizon of planned distribution requirements allows optimal planning in the central warehouse where items have long lead times from suppliers. This planning horizon will facilitate meeting branch requirements.
The Distribution Center (DC) tab on the item Inquiry screen displays planned distribution requirements on the central warehouse for 24 months. Scrolling to the right displays the totals for each branch.
4. BOM - item inquiry
The image below shows a view of the BOM links from the raw material (child item) BRO001 to the finished good items that use it.
Click the Table button on the BOM tab to display the extended requirements of each finished good that uses this raw material. The table view displays 24 months of BOM forecasts, so that long term planning of raw materials with extended lead times is possible.
5. Projection module
The optional Stock Projection module shows summary information as well as more detailed information concerning the projected value of the composition of inventory, projected fill rates, projected replenishment values and projected demand values. Each of the tabs in this module will display the associated projection over 24 months.
Summary tab:
Each of the six panels on the Summary tab show 24 months of information.
Inventory tab:
The value of the below are extrapolated for the 24 month horizon:
Excess stock
Closing stock
“OK” stock
Projected receipts
Firm receipts
6. Supplier Performance module
The optional Supplier Performance module shows the impact of the extended planning horizon on future purchase orders.
Click on the the Future tab to display the chart view.
To see the details of the future orders, click on the table button.
Click on the down arrow to display the two report options. Users have the option of selecting to see the detail of the projected values by individual order, or summarised by month.
Please note: The Extended planning horizon module is an optional module, which can be enabled with a small increase to your monthly subscription fee.