FnR Holiday Demand Distribution
SAP Forecasting and Replenishment is a software solution that helps businesses manage their inventory and supply chain operations more efficiently. While it is designed to provide accurate demand forecasting, there are several factors that can impact the accuracy of the forecasts, especially during public holidays.
During public holidays, people tend to shop more frequently and the demand for certain products is huge. Within F&R, during the FRP run, if one of the days is a public holiday when the location is closed, the daily forecast value can be equally distributed to other days of the same week. Currently, using a global definition within F&R in the Requirement Calculation Profile, we define the workdays before and after the public holiday over which demand on the closed day is distributed. This is valid for all public holidays.
About SAP Forecasting and Replenishment
SAP Forecasting and Replenishment optimizes the internal logistics of retail companies by improving the replenishment processes. It aims to: Cuts surplus stock in distribution centers and stores. Reduces stockouts in distribution centers and stores.
Major Issues
The standard method of distributing demand from a Requirement Calculation Profile is to distribute the forecast equally before and after a public holiday. However, this approach was not ideal, as it can lead to overstocking of products in stores after the holiday. Sometimes, businesses may require demand to be distributed unequally, with more demand distributed before the public holiday and less after the holiday. With the SAP FNR standard approach, it was not possible to define specific dates and percentages for such demand distribution.
Standard Functionality
The standard functionality uses settings in Requirement Calculation Profile during the execution of FRP run. Here, during distribution of the weekly forecast to days of the week, the holiday calendar is considered. Forecast values that would have been assigned to the closed days of the location are instead distributed uniformly across the days identified before and after the holiday (as defined in the Requirement Calculation Profile).
Solution 1: Using Pre-Allocation Profile
In SAP Forecasting and Replenishment, a pre-allocation profile is a configuration setting that gives the system a power to move merchandise deliveries to Stores or Distribution Centers to earlier than the original delivery time frame.
Example: You would like to distribute the demand of Christmas (Public Holiday) to the previous week. The pre-allocation profile for this might look like the following:
Let’s say the original demand of a certain product is 100 on week 52, so with the help of pre-allocation profile, the stores will receive an additional 50 quantities (50% of 100) in week 49. And a quantity of 25 (25% of 100) will be added to week 50.
Advantages: This is a standard functionality. The system distributes the additional demand equally overall sales days within the target week. It is also possible for one source week to have several target weeks.
Disadvantages: You cannot specify the dates; only week number is allowed to fill. So, in which week you want to distribute the demand can be done but not specific day that you want. You can only specify earlier weeks not after. Meaning Target Week must always be less than Source Week.
Solution 2: Enhancement Development
Creation of Z Table, where user will have to fill the following:
Location
Subrange
Product
Public Holiday Date
Number of Days before Holiday
Number of Days post Holiday
Percentage for Pre Days
Percentage for Post Days
BAdI /FRE/FU_FRP_BADI022 must be implemented if not present in the system.
“BADI/FRE/FU_FRP_BADI022 is a standard SAP enhancement spot that is used in the context of forecast-based planning. This BAdI is called during the execution of the FRP run and provides an interface to modify the standard system behavior according to specific business requirements.
The purpose of the BAdI /FRE/FU_FRP_BADI022 is to allow for the customization of the distribution of forecast values to open days of a location, taking into consideration the holiday calendar. By implementing this BAdI, it is possible to distribute forecast values to open days of a location and prevent forecast values from being assigned to closed days due to holidays.
Within the BAdI /FRE/FU_FRP_BADI022, there are various methods that can be implemented to achieve the required functionality. These methods include ADD_DAY_VALUE, ADJUST_WEEKLY_DISTRIBUTION, and others.
By implementing this BAdI, it is possible to enhance the standard SAP functionality for forecast-based planning and tailor it to specific business requirements.
Once activated, the BAdI is called within the standard functionality during the execution of the FRP run. Here, during distribution of the weekly forecast to days of the week, the holiday calendar is considered. Forecast values that would have been assigned to the closed days of the location are instead distributed amongst the remaining location open days.
Once User fills the Z table with the required data, read the internal tables for master data with matching product and location. If not found, then read the internal tables for data with matching product and empty location.
If not found then check for Subrange values for products and location. Again if no data found, then check for matching subrange and empty locations. Where we have determined a record successfully from the above, then the details should be completed, with the table filled with the distribution percentages divided by 100 (i.e. 90% filled as 0.900) from our detailed table for dates before the Public Holiday date. Make sure to set the Yes/No flag if this data is populated. Once values are calculated from percentages and forecast, this demand will be then added to mentioned dates resulting in increased delivery quantities of products pre and post public holiday.
Note: When users navigate to the Z table, it should be possible to populate the public holiday date itself using Calendar (but grayed out). Also check each of the proposed working days against the location calendar, if a location is maintained, to prevent the accidental maintenance of a distribution against another day that is also a closed day.
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