Demand Forecast

This table is used within the Simulation experiment only. It allows you to estimate expected customer demand for certain products over the specified period of time. The table uses periodic or historic data for demand forecasting.

The demand forecast is possible in case of the MRP Inventory policy only.

In contrast to the Demand table, the record in this table can be applied to a customer (to work with the data on placed orders of a single customer) or a site (representing aggregation of all placed orders).

Column	Description
Facility	Defines the source of demand. The cell contains a list of facilities (previously defined in the DCs and Factories table) facilities. To specify a customer in the Facility column cell, you should create a group with the required customer(s) that should obligatory contain a DC.
Product	The product required for the site defined in the Facility column. The cell contains a drop-down list with the available products (defined in the Products table).
Type	Type of demand definition: Periodic demand — select this option if the demand is of repetitive nature: a certain volume of products is ordered in a certain period of time. You can define quantity and period values in the Parameters column. Alternatively this option is used to create demand in case no historical data is available. Periodic demand with first occurrence — same as Periodic demand, but has the First occurrence parameter (defined in the Parameters column), that defines the date on which the first demand occurs. No demand will be generated before this date. Historic demand — use this option if you have historic demand data (this could be order records from CRM). Define the data in the Parameters column.
Parameters	The column cell contains editable data of the chosen demand definition type: If the Type is set to Periodic demand, the cell will display Order interval: 5, Quantity: 10, First occurrence: First day. If the Type is set to Periodic demand with first occurrence, the cell will display Order interval: 5, Quantity: 10, First occurrence: date. If the Type is set to Historic demand, the cell will display Total quantity: 0, standing for the sum of all ordered products for the specified period of time. Learn how to define demand parameters.
Time Period	Defines the period of time (from the previously defined in the Periods table) for the demand forecast specified in the Parameters.

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