Flexible Forecast gives planners and purchasers a clear overview of how inventory develops over time. You can view one item across many periods or many items within a single period, and you decide which columns to display.
For each item you can see start inventory, lowest inventory, end inventory, forecast quantity, and a range of supply and demand figures. This makes it easy to spot when an item needs replenishing.
If you add the Reverse Planning app on top, you can enter quantities to sell, purchase, or replenish directly in the columns and place an order straight from the overview.
What Flexible Forecast shows the planner
Flexible Forecast is built to give a planner or purchaser a fast, readable picture of inventory development. You can look at the development of many items per period, or follow one item across many periods.
On each item you get the key numbers in one place:
- Start inventory
- Lowest inventory
- End inventory
- Forecast quantity
- All kinds of supply and demand figures
There are many other columns you can add as well, and you choose which ones to include in each view. The planner selects which period to look at, making it easy to see how the inventory develops and to drill into the different fields to view the underlying orders.
Different views for different planning tasks
The first view works well when you want to analyse many items within one period. You get a single picture of where each item stands during that period.
You can also work with the forecast per period and extract the lines to see one period, one month, across the items. Or you can extract with all the extra fields and see the data item per event.
When you update the forecast in the event view, you can see on which day different things occur, and again you decide which columns to show. This makes it straightforward to figure out exactly when to replenish an item.
Placing orders directly from the overview
In some of the columns you can add a quantity to sell, purchase, or replenish. This requires the Reverse Planning app on top of Flexible Forecast.
With that in place, you can place an order directly from the overview instead of switching to another screen, so the planning and the action happen in the same view.
Q&A
What overview does Flexible Forecast give a planner?
It shows how inventory develops over time, either many items per period or one item across many periods. For each item you can see start inventory, lowest inventory, end inventory, forecast quantity, and various supply and demand figures, plus other columns you choose to add.
Can you place orders directly from Flexible Forecast?
Yes, but it requires the Reverse Planning app on top of Flexible Forecast. With that installed, you can add a quantity to sell, purchase, or replenish in some of the columns and place the order directly from the overview.
How do you see when an item needs replenishing?
Use the forecast per period and extract the lines, or extract with all extra fields to view the data item per event. The event view shows on which day different things occur, so you can pinpoint exactly when to replenish.