Demand Planning Setup

This chapter covers the following topics:

Setup Instances

Oracle Advanced Planning (consisting of the modules Advanced Supply Chain Planning, Demand Planning, Global Order Promising, Inventory Optimization, and Collaborative Planning) employs a component architecture that allows transaction processing and planning to occur in separate database instances (source and destination instances, respectively.) If you are deploying or intend to deploy any Oracle APS module using this multi-instance configuration, please note the following important restriction:

Instances setup is required to link the source Oracle Applications instance to the Demand Planning Server instance.

Many companies use Demand Planning for only a few of their ASCP-enabled organizations. To help save time on collections, you can configure Demand Planning to collect data from only those ASCP-enabled organizations that are also enabled for Demand Planning.

To set up instances:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. To open the Application Instances window, select Setup > Instances in the Navigator.

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  3. Complete the fields in the Application Instances window as follows:

    Field Function Legal Values
    Instance Code Identifies source transaction instance. VARCHAR2(3)
    Instance Type Describes the type of data in the source instance. Discrete, Process, Discrete & Process, Other
    Version The Oracle Application version of the source instance. 10.7, 11.0, 11i, 12
    From Source to APS Name of database link defined on the Demand Planning Server side that allows collection of data from the source instance. Valid database link name
    From APS to Source Name of database link defined on the source instance that allows publishing of forecast data from the Demand Planning Server back to the source instance. Valid database link name
    GMT Difference A numerical offset indicating the difference between the source instance time zone and GMT. Not used by Oracle Demand Planning. NUMBER
    Currency Base currency of the source instance. Lookup values
    Assignment Set Not used by Oracle Demand Planning. Not applicable

  4. Select Organization.

    The Organization window appears.

  5. Select the Enabled option for all inventory organizations in the source instance that contain data collected by the Demand Planning Server for demand planning purposes.

  6. Select the Demand Planning Enabled option for those ASCP-enabled organizations from which you also want to retrieve Demand Planning data.

Setup Data Collections

The purpose of this setup is to collect the basic data required for initialization. It collects names of inventory organizations and product categories from the Oracle Applications source instance to the Demand Planning Server. It caches data essential to the collection process in Demand Planning Server so that collections can proceed.

To set up data collections:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. To open the Planning Data Collection window, select Setup > Setup Collections in the Navigator.

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  3. To open the Parameters window, select the Parameters field in the Planning Data Collection window.

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  4. Complete the fields in the Parameters window as follows:

    Field Function and Value
    Instance Select the instance from which the data is to be collected.
    Number of Workers Specify the number of workers, between 1 to 3. The default is 2. The greater the number of workers, the greater the computational resources devoted to the collection process.
    Timeout (Minutes) How long before the collection process will abort. The default value is 30 minutes.
    Purge All Previously Collected Data This field and the next determine whether and how previously collected data will be refreshed. If this is set to No, the Collection Method can be set to Targeted Refresh or Net Change. If this field is set to Yes, the Collection Method must be set to Complete Refresh.
    Collection Method The method that can be selected in this field is determined by what you enter in the Purge All Previously Collected Data field. The Collection Methods are:
    Complete Refresh: This method clears all transaction data from the Planning Server (for the source instance being collected), then copies over the new data. This mode should be used with great caution especially when you have also implemented Advanced Supply Chain Planning or Inventory Planning applications. However, it is useful to occasionally purge the previous snapshots to ease storage requirements and to improve system performance.
    Targeted Refresh: This method clears transaction data for only the user selected business entities from the Planning Server, and then copies the entity information over from the transaction instance. Information about non-selected entities remains intact on the Planning Server. All planning business entities are supported by Targeted Refresh collections.
    Netchange Refresh: This method copies only incremental changes to business entities to the Planning Server and is thus faster.

    Important: Do not run setup data collection in Complete Refresh mode if you are using Oracle Demand Planning and Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning. Do one of the following:

    • Run set up data collections in Targeted Refresh mode.

    • Run Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning collections to gather entities used in Oracle Demand Planning. In this case, you don't need to run setup data collections Oracle Demand Planning.

  5. Make your selections and select OK.

    The Planning Data Collection window reappears.

  6. If you select the second parameters field, a window appears that allows you to select the Instance and Number of Workers. However, this is not required because from this window you are launching a concurrent collection request set and the parameters you selected for the first parameter field are the ones that apply.

    The source instance inventory organizations from which Setup Collections retrieves data are dictated by the organizations selected by the user in Setup Instances.

    Setup Collections needs to be run each time the following changes:

    • The source instance from which data is collected.

    • The source instance inventory organizations from which data is collected.

    • The product categories in the source inventory organizations.

    • Customer or supplier information.

To purge fact data:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. In the Navigator, select Other >Purge Fact Data.

  3. Enter a From Date and a To Date.

    You need to specify the purge data range in such a way that it covers the entire time period for booked dates as well as requested date.

    Choose Yes for Booking Data.

  4. Select OK.

  5. Submit.

Setup Demand Planning Dimensions

Simple demand data has two dimensions: product and time. With each demand, there is an associated item and a time bucket. Product and time are the minimum dimensions required by Oracle Demand Planning in any demand plan. However, in many global organizations, data comes from various sources. For example, sales forecasts may come from various parts of the world, from various sales groups and teams, from various business groups, and from key customers. Similarly, shipments can be made from various business units and distribution centers.

In this situation, typically a number of planners will be working on specific segments of the data for demand analysis and forecast enhancements. Oracle Demand Planning facilitates this by providing the following most frequently used dimensions: ship from location, geography, sales channel, demand class, and sales representative besides the product and time dimensions. In addition, Oracle Demand Planning provides two user-defined dimensions. The hierarchies for user-defined dimensions need to be setup while they are seeded for other dimensions.

Note: This setup step is typically not needed unless user defined dimensions are needed. For details on user defined dimensions and customization of hierarchies within dimensions, see: Customizing Demand Planning hierarchies.

To set up Demand Planning dimensions:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. To open the Application Utilities: MSD_DIMENSIONS Lookups window, select Setup > Dimensions in the Navigator.

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  3. Use this window to view the six predefined Demand Planning dimensions and to change the Meaning and Description names. Two user defined dimensions are also available.

  4. Complete the fields in the Application Utilities: MSD_DIMENSIONS Lookups window as follows:

    Field Function Legal Values
    Code Lookup code that uniquely identifies the Demand Planning Dimension CHN, DSC, GEO, ORG, PRD, REP, TIM, UD1, and UD2.
    Meaning Name of the Demand Planning Dimension Default values can be changed by user.
    Description Describes the Code as being a Demand Planning Dimension Default values can be changed by user.

Setup Demand Planning Hierarchies

Each dimension may contain multiple hierarchies. For example, the product dimension may contain the Product Category and Product Family hierarchies. A product (an automobile model: the Corvette) may fit into both a Product Family (a marketing brand: Chevrolet) and a Product Category (a vehicle style: sports car). Each hierarchy may need to be analyzed separately. Oracle Demand Planning provides a set of most frequently used hierarchies for the six dimensions:

Hierarchies are used for aggregating data, allowing one hierarchy to be used for allocation while others are used for reporting.

Demand Class Dimension

Product Dimension

Time Dimension

Geography Dimension

Ship From (Organization) Dimension

Note: The Organization hierarchy and Legal Entity hierarchy are mutually exclusive and cannot be used in the same demand plan.

Sales Channel Dimension

Sales Representative Dimension

Note: This setup step is typically not needed, unless custom hierarchies are needed. For details on customization of hierarchies within dimensions, see: Customizing Demand Planning hierarchies.

To set up Demand Planning Hierarchies:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. To open the Demand Planning Hierarchies window, select Setup > Hierarchies in the Navigator.

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  3. Use the Demand Planning Hierarchies window to view the preseeded hierarchies and their associations with a Demand Planning Dimension defined in the previous window.

    In this example, the hierarchy name My Geo Hierarchy has been created for the Geography Dimension with a description of Test New Hierarchy.

    You can see in the example that multiple hierarchy names can be created for a dimension as in the case of Geography that has Customer Group, Geography, My Geo Hierarchy, and so forth.

  4. Complete the fields in the Demand Planning Hierarchies window as follows:

    Field Function Legal Values
    Name Hierarchy Name VARCHAR2(30)
    Description Detailed description for the hierarchy name VARCHAR2(240). Note that users can change the names.
    Dimension Demand Planning Dimension Name List of Values. Note that users can changes the names.

One of the major implementation issues is to decide on the dimensions and hierarchies to be used for demand analysis. Oracle Demand Planning provides a set of six predefined dimensions along with their hierarchies. These preseeded hierarchies are designed to meet most business needs. However, it will be necessary for the users to map their specific business process to these dimensions and hierarchies.

Dimension viewer

One of the key concepts and features in Oracle Demand Planning is hierarchy levels by which users can view, compare and analyze demands of their products over various dimensions, for example, geography and organizations. It is difficult to visualize the complex interrelationships between hierarchy levels and dimensions where multiple hierarchy levels and dimensions exist. This feature enables you to see the various hierarchy levels and their relationships within each dimension in a user friendly graphical display, helping you to visualize the complex interrelationships.

Dimension viewer features include:

The Dimension Viewer shows Levels, Hierarchies, and Hierarchy Levels windows.

To run the dimension viewer:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. In the Navigator, select Other > Dimension Viewer.

  3. Select in the Dimension field.

    The Dimensions window appears.

  4. To display the hierarchies for the selected dimension, select the dimension for which you want to view the hierarchy.

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Setup Demand Planning Levels

Demand Planning Levels represent different ways of aggregating data within a Dimension.

Note: This setup step is typically not needed, unless custom hierarchies are needed. For details on customization of hierarchies and levels within dimensions, see: Customizing Demand Planning Hierarchies.

To set up Demand Planning levels:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. In the Navigator, select Setup > Levels.

    The Demand Planning Levels window appears. Use this window to view preseeded hierarchy levels and identify the position of the level in the dimension.

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  3. In this example, the following level names: All Geography, Area, Country, Region, and Ship To Location have been defined for the Geography Dimension with detailed description names. The positioning of the levels in the hierarchy have also been defined with All Geography being the top level and Ship to Location the bottom level. Area, Country, and Region level names are the intermediate Levels.

    If there are no level values defined for the Geography dimension in the planning server and the profile MSD: Customer Attribute is not set, then the Demand Planning Engine does not collect the Ship-to-Location values. This reduces the size of level values and booking shipment cube.

    After data collection, you can check the collection log file to view the action taken, its impact, and how it can be reverted back.

  4. Complete the fields in Demand Planning Levels window as follows:

    Field Function Legal Values
    Name Level Name. VARCHAR2(30). Note that users can change the name.
    Description Detailed Description for the Level. VARCHAR2(240). Note that users can change the description.
    Dimension The Demand Planning Dimension to which the Level is associated. Lookup Values.
    Level Type Code The position of the Level in a Hierarchy. Lookup Values 1: Top, 2: Bottom, and 3: Intermediate.
    User Attributes 1-5 (This field is not currently functioning.) The User Attribute associated with the Level. VARCHAR2(240).

Setup Demand Planning Hierarchy Levels

A Hierarchy Level is created by associating a hierarchy name with a level name.

Note: This setup step is typically not needed, unless custom hierarchies are needed. For details about customization of hierarchies and levels within dimensions, see: Customizing Demand Planning hierarchies.

To set up Demand Planning Hierarchy levels:

  1. Choose the Demand Planning System Administrator responsibility.

  2. To open the Demand Planning Hierarchy Levels window, select Setup > Hierarchy Levels in the Navigator.

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  3. In this example, the level name of Area is associated with parent level name of All Geography, the level name of Country is associated with the parent level name of Area, the level name of Region is associated with the parent level name of Country, and the level name of Ship To Location is associated with parent level name of Region for the Hierarchy Name Geography. This forms one of the hierarchies in the Geography Dimension. For details, see: Setup Demand Plan Hierarchies.

    In this window, you can view the associations between levels to parent levels through the same Hierarchy. Once the links are defined and saved, you can use Validate Hierarchies to verify that the levels in a Hierarchy are valid.

  4. Complete the fields in the Demand Planning Hierarchy Levels window as follows:

    Field Function Legal Values
    Hierarchy Name Name of the hierarchy. VARCHAR2(30) [Lookup Values]
    Level Name Name of the level. VARCHAR2(30) [Lookup Values]
    Parent Level Name The Parent Level to which the level is aggregated in this Hierarchy. VARCHAR2(30) [Lookup Values]
    Relationship View The view from which this relationship information can be collected into the Planning Server. VARCHAR2(30)
    Level Value Column The column from which the Level Value are fetched. VARCHAR2(30)
    Parent Value Column The column from which the Parent Level Value are fetched. VARCHAR2(30)

Setup Profile Options

Demand Planning profile options begin with three letters: MSD. The letter is an abbreviation for Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Demand Planning.

To set up profile options:

  1. Choose the System Administrator responsibility.

  2. To open an empty Personal Profile Values window, select Profile > Personal in the Navigator.

  3. Search for MSD% to open the Profiles window with the MSD profile options.

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  4. Select the profile you want to use.

  5. Complete the fields in the Personal Profile Values window as follows:

    Field Function
    MSD: AW Tablespace This profile controls where analytic workspaces are created and stored. New plans are created in the specified tablespace; existing plans remain in the tablespace specified at the time of their creation. Changing the tablespace profile has no effect on existing data.

    Note: To migrate an old plan to a new tablespace, first change the profile, then recreate the plan.
    MSD: Calculate Planning Percentages This profile controls planning percentage calculation behaviors. Valid values are:

    • No, use existing planning percentages: this is the default value that indicates the planning percentages are not to be calculated in Oracle Demand Planning and only the existing planning percentages specified in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) source are used to explode the forecast. When this profile value is selected, model bills and planning percentages are brought into Oracle Demand Planning from the source ERP. Base Model items for which the forecast control flag is either Consume or Consume & Derive are considered.

    • Yes, for Consume & Derive Options and Option Classes: this represents the case when you calculate planning percentages in Oracle Demand Planning from the sales history of Options and Option Classes, based on the model bills as defined in ERP. When this profile value is selected, sales history of models, options, and option classes are brought into Oracle Demand Planning from the ERP source in addition to the model bills, and planning percentages. Only items for which the forecast control flag is either Consume or Consume & Derive are considered.

    • Yes, for Consume & Derive Options only: this value enables all the functionality of the preceding profile value except that the option classes are excluded from Oracle Demand Planning and treated as phantoms. The Bills of Material are adjusted in Oracle Demand Planning to roll directly from options to models. This allows the user to set unique planning percent combinations for options when their parent Option Class is associated to different ATO models. Only those items for which the forecast control flag is either Consume or Consume & Derive are considered.

    • Yes, for all the Options and Option Classes: this value enables all the functionality of the Yes, for Consume & Derive Options and Option Classes value. All of the Options and Option Classes, specified as Optional in the Order Entry tab of Bills of Material, are brought into Oracle Demand Planning regardless of the forecast control flag, as long as the models' forecast control is set to Consume or Consume & Derive. Thus, this profile can be used to collect the planning percentages for all the optional items regardless of the forecast control.
    MSD: Category Set Name This profile designates the category set. The product categories pertaining to the selected category set are collected. For an 11i source system, you must select a category set that does not allow multiple category roll up, such as an item rolling up to multiple categories within the same category set for the same organization. Multiple category roll up is controlled by the attribute mult_item_cat_assign_flag in mtl_category_sets. If this source flag is set to Yes, all the items of the category set roll up to the Other Category Set in Oracle Demand Planning. For Sales Forecast Integration, you use the Sales and Marketing Category Set.
    MSD: Conversion Type This profile determines what currency conversion rates are collected from the General Ledger tables.
    MSD: Currency Code This profile designates the currency used as the base currency in Oracle Demand Planning. The amounts (revenues) are converted to and displayed in this base currency.
    MSD: Customer Attribute This is a source profile option to selectively bring the customer names into Oracle Demand Planning. Selective inclusion of customers helps you focus on your key customers. It also improves system performance.
    The profile holds the descriptive flexfield column name that is used to indicate if a customer in the customer table will be brought into Oracle Demand Planning. The valid profile option value is one of the attribute columns (ATTRIBUTE1 to ATTRIBUTE15) of the RA_CUSTOMERS entity. For example, if you use ATTRIBUTE10 to setup your key customers, then you need to specify ATTRIBUTE10 in this profile.
    If the data collections are run without setting up this profile, the value of the profile is set to 'None' causing all the customers to be disabled. You can change this profile to a valid descriptive flex field column name as described above. You can also clear the default, 'NONE' or any existing value to leave the field blank in which case all the customers and customer sites are collected regardless of the setting in the descriptive flex field.
    To setup key customers, go to the customer setup screen in Oracle e-business source and populate an available descriptive flexfield column. If the flexfield is set to 1 for a customer, that customer is enabled and will be collected into Oracle Demand Planning. Also, the fact data (booking history, shipment history, etc.) for this customer will be brought into Oracle Demand Planning under the same customer and customer site. If the flexfield is set to any other values or left blank for a customer, that customer is disabled and will not be collected into Oracle Demand Planning. However, the fact data (booking history, shipment history, etc.) for this customer will be brought into Oracle Demand Planning under a dummy customer, 'OTHER' and customer site, 'OTHER'. Also, the fact data for all the disabled customers is grouped into the dummy customer, 'OTHER' and customer site, 'OTHER'.
    MSD: Enabled Organization for Item Collections This profile option specifies how Oracle Demand Planning collects Product Family and Product Category relationships. Valid values are:

    • All Enabled Demand Planning Organizations: Product Family and Product Category relationships are collected from all enabled demand planning organizations.

    • Demand Planning Master Organization: Product Family and Product Category relationships are only collected from the master organization.
    MSD: Master Organization This profile is used to select a master organization if there are multiple master organizations. The item attributes pertaining to the selected master organization are used in Oracle Demand Planning. Note that the demand is exploded based on the item attributes in the respective inventory organizations, and is not exploded based on those in the master organization
    MSD: One Step Collection This profile controls the number of steps in the data collection process. If the value of the profile is selected as Yes, the collection programs take the data directly into the fact tables in a single step. However, if the value is selected as No (as default), then a two-step collection process is used. In the first step, collection programs take the data in to the Staging Tables where the data can be consolidated and cleansed by the user if required. In the second step, the pull programs carry the data over to the fact tables from the staging tables. Both sets of tables exist on the Planning Server itself.
    MSD: Two-Level Planning This profile allows you to forecast demand at product family level on the basis of sales histories of member items. You can collect all the product family members and their sales histories regardless of the forecast control as long as the product family forecast control is 'Consume' or 'Consume & Derive' and the planning method for product family as well as members is not set to 'Not Planned'. This is achieved by setting the profile value to: Collect all family members and their sales histories. The default profile value, Exclude family members with forecast control 'None' enforces the existing behavior that is, only 'Consume' or 'Consume & Derive' product family members are collected.

For a list of all the MSD profile options, see: Demand Planning Profile Options.

For a complete list of all of the MSD profile options, see: the Profile Options appendix in the Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling Implementation and User's Guide.

Demand Planning Setup Procedures

The typical sequence for setting up Demand Planning is as follows:

  1. Customize Hierarchies (if needed): establish the way the information is aggregated from a lower level (for example, product) to the higher level (for example, product family). For details on the Dimensions, Hierarchies, Levels, and Hierarchy Levels setup windows, see: Setup Demand Planning Dimensions and Setup Demand Planning Hierarchies. For details about customizing hierarchies, see: Customizing Demand Planning hierarchies.

  2. Setup Instances: specify the source application instance from where the data is collected. Organizations can also be enabled while setting up instances. The data pertaining only to the enabled Organization is then being collected. For details on this setup step, see: Setup Instances.

  3. Customize Data Streams (if needed): define a new data stream such as Customer Forecast. Use this step when the preseeded data streams such as Booking History, Shipment History, and Manufacturing Forecast are not adequate for your demand planning process and you need to use more information.

  4. Setup Collections: collect basic setup related data pertaining to organizations and product category sets. For details, see: Setup Data Collections.

  5. Setup Profile Options: select a data collection mode (one-step and two-step), category set, and currency conversion. For details, see: Setup Profile Options.