Forecasting

Hi,

It sounds like IFS Demand Planner is the most appropriate planning tool for this requirement.

Here is an overview from IFS.ai Copilot:

IFS Cloud Demand Planner is a powerful tool designed to streamline your demand planning process, ensuring your business stays ahead of the curve. Here's how it can benefit your operations:

1. Efficient Data Management: The Demand Planner aggregates demand data from transactions into manageable periods, typically monthly, and stores it in memory on the Demand Plan Server. This ensures that your data is organized and readily accessible for forecasting 1.

2. Accurate Forecasting: With the ability to generate new forecasts based on historical data, the Demand Planner allows you to make informed decisions about production and raw material purchases. Adjustments can be made to computer-generated forecasts, ensuring they align with your business needs 1.

3. Optimized Inventory Control: The system calculates essential inventory parameters like Safety Stock, Reorder Point, and Lot Size daily, using the latest available forecast. This helps maintain optimal inventory levels, reducing waste and improving efficiency 1.

4. Automated Scheduling: The Demand Planner can be configured to perform necessary jobs automatically, ensuring that the demand planning process is seamless and continuous. This automation saves time and reduces the risk of human error 1.

5. Robust Integration and Security: IFS Cloud's integration capabilities ensure that the Demand Planner works seamlessly with other systems, while robust security features protect your data and maintain compliance 2345.

By leveraging the IFS Cloud Demand Planner, your business can achieve greater accuracy in forecasting, optimize inventory management, and enhance overall operational efficiency.

I hope this helps.

Thank you, Richard, for the great explanation. It is greately appreciate if you could give us insight the benifit from moving Forecast Base Planning to Demand Planning as currently we used Forecast Based planning. And exists 06 months lead time for approximately 60% of our turnover. Curruntly we upload forecasts (3-6 moonths forecasts) received from customer and work between minimum & maximum stock levels (agreed with customer). Br//Ajith

Hi Ajith,

Because you're already working with 3–6‑month customer forecasts and managing stock via agreed min/max levels, moving to Demand Planner can give you a noticeable improvement in control and stability.

DP doesn’t just use the customer forecast as‑is, instead it generates its own statistical forecast from your historic demand. You can then view this in conjunction with the customer forecast and smooth out any noise to get a much cleaner, more reliable forward forecast. That tends to make a big difference when so much of your volume has a 6‑month lead time.

You can also introduce a proper monthly forecasting cycle with the ability to make controlled adjustments. It’s then much easier to track how the demand picture changes from one month to the next, and you're no longer dependent on spreadsheets or uploads.

Another benefit is around inventory planning parameters. Your current min/max levels are static values. DP can be used to compute Safety Stock, Reorder Point and Lot Size values based on forecast variation, lead time and service‑level targets. That keeps the parameters aligned with reality rather than drifting over time.

All of this ultimately leads to a steadier demand into MRP, smoother forecasts, dynamic inventory settings and fewer surprises. Most customers end up with more predictable supply proposals and less firefighting.

In summary, you keep using your customer forecast, but in a more structured and intelligent way. This results in better stability for your long‑lead‑time items with less manual effort.

I hope this helps.

Richard

Great to hear, Richard, and thank you very much for your support and the clear explanations. I will start learning and preparing the basic data updates required for this implementation. We may need further guidance from you in the near future.….Kind Regards...Ajith