User defined forecast profile

• You can populate user defined forecast profile data as an input to the Demand Analysis process. This data is entered in the User Defined Customer Forecast Profile and User Defined Site Forecast Profile tables.
• You can use these tables in a variety of ways:
  • Use the User Defined Customer Forecast Profile table along with the Customer Demand or Customer Orders table to override statistics.
  • Use the User Defined Customer Forecast Profile table as the primary set of data without using the Customer Demand or Customer Orders table.
  • Use the User Defined Site Forecast Profile as an override to the calculated statistics and demand class.
• One case that is not supported is if you provide User Defined Site Forecast Profile data for all customer-facing facilities, but want the calculated demand profile at other echelons. The User Defined Site Forecast Profile data is not propagated to the other echelons. The use case for the user defined site demand is to do overrides at a single echelon only and has no effect on upstream propagation.
• To illustrate the supported combinations of field inputs from the user defined forecast profile tables, the first table below groups the available fields into sets:

When providing user defined forecast profile data, you must supply one of the valid combinations of field sets as shown in the following table:

User defined forecast profile notes

1. When you define user defined forecast profile records, Demand Analysis uses the statistics you populate and these statistics drive the results. Coupa recommends that you consider the following:

   If you choose to populate only the Forecast Mean and Forecast Error in the user defined forecast profile records, Demand Analysis assumes all demand is normal; that is, non-intermittent and smooth.

   As an example, when your model has dependent products, such as those that are linked with a bill of material (BOM), you may not have all statistics for all products. Ideally, the number of statistics you provide in the user defined forecast profile records should remain consistent. If the profile for one product uses only 2 statistics (Forecast Mean and Forecast Error), this case will be applied to all products, even if the profiles of other products contain additional statistics. This has the effect of making all demand look normal (non-intermittent) as described in the bullet b above.

   To allow full classification for all products, approximate the remaining statistics based on historical patterns, as described in bullet c above. Assume the following User Defined Customer Forecast Profile records where RM1 and RM2 have only 2 statistics populated:

   Customer Name	Product Name	Period Name	Non-zero Forecast Mean	Non-zero Forecast Std Dev	Inter-Demand Interval Mean	Forecast Mean	Forecast Error
   CZ1	RM1	Period_001				84.4	12.5
   CZ1	RM2	Period_001				92.5	9.75
   CZ1	RM3	Period_001	88.5	15	3	60	16
   CZ1	FG1	Period_001	95	10	1.2	80	8.5

   You can populate the missing statistics based on historical patterns. In the updated records below, this results in non-intermittent daily demand for RM1 and RM2:

   Customer Name	Product Name	Period Name	Non-zero Forecast Mean	Non-zero Forecast Std Dev	Inter-Demand Interval Mean	Forecast Mean	Forecast Error
   CZ1	RM1	Period_001	84.4	12.5	1	84.4	12.5
   CZ1	RM2	Period_001	92.5	9.75	1	92.5	9.75
   CZ1	RM3	Period_001	88.5	15	3	60	16
   CZ1	FG1	Period_001	95	10	1.2	80	8.5

2. Except for Case 3 (which applies to User Defined Site Forecast Profile only), when there is a valid record in the user defined forecast profile table, Demand Analysis uses the statistics from that user defined record. It does not calculate statistics from any other data sources.
3. If user defined inputs do not match any of the supported cases, Demand Analysis uses a subset of inputs to match the closest case. Incomplete inputs are ignored and a warning is displayed.
4. Case 3 only works when statistics are calculated from other sources and applies to User Defined Site Forecast Profile only.
5. The fields in Set 0 must be populated for all user defined records.
6. If any field in Set A is populated, all fields in Set A must be populated. When these fields are populated, there are enough inputs to perform demand classification.
7. If any field in Set B is populated, all fields in Set B must be populated. There are two ways to use Set B:
   • In combination with Set A: Demand Analysis uses the standard Demand Propagation approach.
   • Without Set A: Demand Analysis assumes demand for this product at all upstream locations is smooth (demand is assumed to be normal), and it ignores a Demand Class override. This is similar to the demand propagation used in previous versions of Demand Analysis.
8. For User Defined Forecast Profile records that are included, if the Sites or Products referenced in the profile records are excluded (Status = Exclude in the Sites or Products tables), Demand Analysis will generate an error.