We are attempting to utilize forecast to drive demand for components. However, we do not build to forecast. I would like to have forecast drive demand for component Items, be consumed by sales orders throughout the month, and drop off at the end of the month.
Has anyone tried to have Epicor leave forecast demand out of Un-firm order suggestions?
We attempted to forecast at the component level, but that was causing issues with the forecast never being consumed, and was missing sub-assemblies. We are now trying to forecast at the End-Item but planners are getting hit with hundreds of un-firm orders that we are not going to build because they include forecast. They are having to go into each un-firm order and then check Time-Phase to see if the suggestion includes forecast, then reducing the suggested quantity by the forecast amount. Of course any un-firm orders that are driven only by forecast come back every morning.
If not possible to ignore forecast in Un-Firm order suggestions, would it be possible to add the quantity of the forecast portion to the Fulfillment Workbench, Job Status Maintenance, and Job Manager screens?
If you are trying to enter demand for parts that are not what is being sold to the customer, you should look at Manufacturing Production Schedule. Generally, finished goods are entered as a forecast and components are entered as an MPS.
We are forecasting End-Items that are sold to customers. We just don’t want to build the End-Item unless we actually get the customer order. Once we get an order, we will build the Items and the forecast should be reduced by that order.
The issue is that Epicor is suggesting Jobs for Sales-Orders + Safety Stock + Forecast.
We only want to build to Sales-Orders + Safety Stock. Since we forecast 9000 + End Items, each planner is getting hundreds of suggestions daily that they don’t want to release to a Job.
@SealsZane , thanks for clarifying, I did not read the original post correctly.
Unfortunately, I do not think there is anything that would do what you are asking. I know I am not aware of anything. Sales Orders do consume the forecast based on the forecast window, but if you do not create jobs based off of the forecast, I can see how there would be a lot of suggestions. If you will not be creating jobs based on the forecast, I would not use the forecast functionality.