Demand

Review the demand forecast of your products, adjust it, and choose the forecasting models.

Demand is where you check the forecast of each product, correct it when you know something the model does not, and decide which forecasting models it uses. The final forecast you validate here feeds Planning.

In the sidebar, go to Demand management > Demand.

How to find the products that need attention

1

Pick a built-in view

Click a view tab at the top of the list: 🎯 Forecast accuracy to check forecast errors (MAE and MAPE), 🍼 New products for products with no or little history, or 🛸 Outliers for products with a possible outlier in the last 90 days.

2

Narrow the list

Type a name in the search field or paste a list of references. Then filter with Tags, Suppliers, Customers or Alerts.

3

Combine tags with AND / OR (optional)

Click Tags > Advanced > Add filter. Choose a tag category, an operator such as has any of or has none of, and the tags. Link rules with AND or OR, or use Add nested filter for a sub-group.

4

Add more filters

Click More... to filter on events, Demand type, Demand predictability, Forecast source, Expert models, Similar products or any KPI.

5

Save the view

Click Save view to keep your filters, columns, sorting and grouping. Reset view brings back the saved version. See Set up and manage views.

How to review a product's forecast

1

Open the product

Click a row in the list. Use the arrows at the top, or the left and right arrow keys, to move to the next product.

2

Read the chart

Compare Cleaned past demand (the history the model learns from) with Raw past demand (the history as received). Then check the Final forecast, the Flowlity forecast and its Confidence interval.

3

Compare with previous years

Click ... next to Raw past demand in the legend and turn on Raw past demand (N-1) or Raw past demand (N-2).

4

Read the table

Below the chart, each row shows one series per period: Final forecast, My forecast, Flowlity forecast, External forecast (if you load one) and Forecast events. Your site may show the external forecast under its own name.

5

Mark it as reviewed

Click Review in the header. The button then shows the date of your last review, and the Demand review column of the list shows it too. Sort on that column to find the products reviewed least recently.

How to adjust the forecast with My forecast

1

Edit the My forecast row

Click a future cell of the My forecast row and type a quantity. On a tag or an aggregation of products, the value is split across the products.

If your site uses the customer axis, expand the My forecast row of a product to edit one row per customer.

2

Save

Click Save in the header, or Discard changes to cancel. The Final forecast updates for the periods you changed.

3

Clear My forecast in bulk (optional)

To go back to the Flowlity forecast, select products in the list, click ⋮ and choose Clear My forecast. This cannot be undone.

How to apply an expert model

Expert models (the Forecast Studio feature) refine the AI foundation model for one product, based on what you know about it.

1

Open Forecasting models

In the product detail, click Product strategy, open the Forecast tab, then the Forecasting models section. The AI foundation model is always active.

2

Add a model

Under Expert models, click Add model and pick one: Average of recent periods model, Average + Trend model, Seasonality model, Manual Seasonal model, Intermittent demand model, Auto model or Launch model. Set its parameters.

3

Simulate, then apply

Click Simulate forecast to see the result on the chart, then Apply to keep it, or Discard. Simulations use credits.

4

Apply to many products (optional)

Select products in the list, click ⋮ > Edit product strategy, then Edit expert models. Set the model and click Apply.

How to recompute a forecast now

1

Click Compute forecast

Open a product, a tag, or several products with View Aggregated Details. Click Compute forecast in the header. The confirmation shows how many credits it uses and how many you have left.

2

Check the result

The chart and the table refresh with the new Flowlity forecast. Without this, the forecast updates at the next weekly run.

How to group and sort the list

1

Group the rows

Click Group > Add group and pick a tag category, the supplier, the customer or the site. Each group shows its subtotals, and a Grand total sits at the bottom. Tick a group's checkbox to select all its products, and hover a group header to see its alerts.

2

Sort on several columns

Click Sort > Add sort, or hold Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and click column headers. A number on each header shows the order of the sorts.

3

Save the view

Click Save view. Grouping and sorting are saved with the view. Use Expand all or Collapse all to open or close every group.

How to read the figures in another unit

1

Hover a value

In the product list, hover a quantity to see it in every unit configured for the product, and in purchase and sales value.

2

Switch the unit of an aggregation

Open several products together, then pick a unit in the unit dropdown above the chart. The value modes (sales or purchase price) multiply each product's quantity by its own price, so editing is turned off.

How to act on many products at once

1

Select the products

Tick the products in the list, or tick a whole group.

2

Pick an action

Click ⋮ and choose an action, for example Edit product strategy, Create new forecast event, Add to existing forecast event, Clear My forecast, Change lead time, Add tag, Remove tag or Download the list in XLSX.

How to choose the rows of the table

1

Open Table settings

In the product detail, click the sliders icon on the right, above the table, to open Table settings.

2

Show or hide rows

Turn rows such as Raw past demand, Raw past demand (N-1), Similar products past demand or Anomaly adjustments impact on or off. They move between Shown in table and Hidden in table.

3

Change the layout

Choose Combined table or Split table (past and future apart). With Relative scrolling on, both parts scroll together with a one-year gap.

Good to know

• Final forecast: it uses My forecast where you entered one, otherwise the baseline (Flowlity forecast, or External forecast when Forecast source is set to it). Confirmed future demand acts as a floor. See Demand forecasting explained.

• Promotions: planned and in-review promotions appear on the chart but do not change the final forecast until they are confirmed.

• Dimension: switch the list between Product, Tag and, on sites with the customer axis, Customer.

• Sites: use the sites dropdown in the filter bar to work on several sites at once. Each product then shows its site.

• Chart series: click a legend item to hide it. Click ... next to a forecast series to show only its past or future data.

• Export: the selection menu downloads the list in XLSX, CSV or TSV. The product detail has its own button to export the grid data.

• Co-planner: ask questions about your demand from the Co-planner button in the page header.

• Credits: forecast computations and simulations use credits. Contact your Customer Success Manager to get more credits.

• Units: to configure more units for your products, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Depending on your setup

• Firm demand: confirmed orders from your customers.

• Planned demand: demand planned but not yet confirmed.

• Future demand: firm and planned demand added together.

• Future shipments: all shipments planned to your customer, on supplier-portal sites.

• Firm shipments: confirmed shipments to your customer, on supplier-portal sites.

• Planned shipments: shipments not yet confirmed, on supplier-portal sites.

• Actual customer consumption: your customer's consumption, on supplier-portal sites.

Related

• Demand forecasting explained

• Forecast events and demand adjustments

• Product similarities

• Create and apply forecast events

• Investigate and fix demand anomalies

• Run a forecast accuracy review

• Sales orders

• Views and filtering

• KPIs

• Comments