I’m trying to pinpoint why demand for a specific part in our system is fluctuating from day to day with no input changes other than the occasional order entry.  We have a customer that takes 1,000 units (per forecast).  As I’m still only 2 months into using IFS I’m trying to make sure I understand this properly in regards to flow:

-Customer sends forecast

-Planner enters forecast into system for finished unit

-Forecast drives supply side to enter purchase orders which then show as system supply

-Customer sends an actual order to fulfill

-Planner enters the order in the system which should then reduce the forecast (ie. order is for 200 units so June demand should drop to 800 with the hard order for 200)

-Nowhere should the demand fluctuate for a given part just so no orders are made in excess of the actual forecast

Now I may be misunderstanding this but since I started here I’ve been monitoring IFS reports daily to try and pinpoint where there are opportunities to understand the system better.  This one part keeps showing up because the fluctuation in demand is anywhere from 750 to 1250 a day (but not every day) which causes this one unit to change in regards to excess on order around $500k when this occurs.  Any thoughts whatsoever on what’s going on here and how to correct?  I’m sure there are other items this is occuring on but without knowing what is causing this issue I’m lost on how to fix the whole system.  Thanks ahead for any/all responses!