Demand Planning: Navigation

Demand Planning can be found on the left-hand menu. Select this option to open the Demand Planning page:

The Demand Planning page looks as follows:

In order to populate the page with the relevant demand planning information, a hierarchy must first be created.

In Netstock, the current view for demand planning is product-location. This has been enhanced in the Demand Planning module by using attributes, which allow for a deeper segmentation of data.

To create a hierarchy, select the "Setup Hierarchy" button on the top right-hand side of the page:

This opens a menu containing all the attributes available to pivot on demand data:

To add the attributes select the "Add button next to the relevant attributes:

Attributes selected will appear on the right hand panel. Note that the order of the attributes in this column will determine the resulting hierarchy:

Each of these attributes can be rearranged by selecting an attribute handle and moving it above or below other attributes as required:

Once the correct ordering and attributes have been selected, select “Apply”:

The Planning page is the default landing page where sales history and demand planning information is shown:

Once the attributes have been selected, a hierarchy "tree" is displayed on the right-hand side of this page, which enables the correct view to be selected for cleansing, forecasting and refinement. In the example below, the hierarchy is set up based on classification and location data, and so the relevant classification & location can be selected from this list. In the example below, all "A" category items will be selected:

Once a hierarchy is selected, the flyaway panel disappears and the page now populates according to the selected view, ensuring that as much information is displayed as possible.

The table contains historical data (blue) and forecasted data (olive):

This corresponds visually to the information in the graph, where the bright purple solid line represents the historical sales over time, and the olive solid line represents the forecast:

At any point, a data series can be added or removed by selecting the appropriate option in the legend underneath the graph:

Hovering over any specific label will emphasize that series for ease of reference:

The conversions to display this data in can be selected from the drop-down:

The flyaway panel containing the hierarchy tree can be used to navigate to any level quickly. To do this, select the arrows next to any of the items on the current level:

This will expand all child items linked to the parent. Because these codes do not describe the location name, each location code can be enhanced to add a description by selecting the descriptor blocks above the tree:

In the below example, the medium option has been selected, which appends the name of the location to the location code:

Using the hierarchy tree on the flyaway panel is one of several options to change navigation views. On the top right-hand side of the Planning page, the highlighted option indicates what view in the hierarchy is currently selected. In the sample below, all "A" category items are displayed across all locations:

To drill down to the next level (Locations) choose the drill-down arrow on the right hand side of this hierarchy:

The first item on the next level (Locations) is now displayed as the current view on the hierarchy:

The dropdown arrow can also be selected to quickly change views for each attribute in the hierarchy:

Notice that all the information displayed on the Planning page updates according to the view selected.

To view the hierarchy panel again, select the "Hierarchy" button on the top right-hand side of the screen:

This allows different selections to be made, which will then change the view on the Planning page.

Note: The lowest-level view on a hierarchy is the “dot products” (dot-level) items. In Netstock, this is represented by the dot product symbol in the hierarchy:

The total dot items in a particular view can be seen in the table, which is useful to assess the impact of any changes made when cleansing and forecasting:

To change which attributes are used for the Demand Planning hierarchy, select the "Setup Hierarchy" button:

This once again opens the Setup hierarchy screen, and any changes to the attributes can be made.

To save a frequently used hierarchy, add the name of the hierarchy on the "Setup hierarchy" screen by adding a name in the "Save hierarchy as" block and selecting the save button:

Saved hierarchies can then quickly be selected from the Saved hierarchies dropdown, to quickly load the view on the collaborator page:

Additionally, saved hierarchies can be selected from the bottom of the Hierarchy tree:

Finally, any saved hierarchies can be selected in the dropdown next to the Hierarchy button:

To view which attributes are associated to a saved hierarchy, as well as to delete any saved hierarchies, select the Saved hierarchies tab:

This displays a list of all saved hierarchies and their associated attributes. To delete any of the saved hierarchies, select the delete button:

To view the top N-tier items within an attribute quickly and as a quick means of navigation, a useful Top N-tier panel has been included on the bottom right-hand side of the screen:

The default view corresponds to the currently selected attribute on the page. In the example below, the current view is on all items across different locations; the table displays all underlying classifications of this selection as "Top Classifications", for ease of reference:

The items in the panel can be selected to quickly change between views:

The information in the panel can also be changed to display information most useful to the user, as well as for which time period it should be displayed.

To change the data displayed in this panel, select the edit (pencil) icon:

The below settings are available:

To narrow down the information based on a measure (see Reference Measures):

To display the information for a default time frame:

Alternatively, to select a specific date range:

The number of top displayed results can also be adjusted as follows:

Select update to carry these changes to the reference panel accordingly:

These settings will now be saved as the defaults applied to the panel for future reference.

Comments are a useful system feature that allow multiple users to keep track of any important information relating to items, in descending order. Comments saved to underlying items that fall within attributes matching the current view will be displayed, ensuring that only the most relevant comments are presented.

Comments can be found by selecting the “Comments” button on the table:

A flyaway panel will open containing all comments relevant to the current view (based on attributes).

A comment can be captured in the free text field at the bottom of the panel. In the below example, the comment will apply to all items within the “A” classification in location "ABSH-422":

Select “Add Comment” to save the comment: