Description of Forecast Management

Effective management of distribution and manufacturing activities begins with understanding and anticipating market needs. Forecasting is the process of projecting past sales demand into the future. Implementing a forecasting system enables you to assess current market trends and sales quickly so that you can make informed decisions about the operations.

You can use forecasts to make planning decisions about:

• Customer orders.

• Inventory.

• Delivery of goods.

• Work load.

• Capacity requirements.

• Warehouse space.

• Labor.

• Equipment.

• Budgets.

• Development of new products.

• Work force requirements.

The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Forecast Management system generates these types of forecasts:

• Detail forecasts, which are based on individual items.

• Summary (or aggregated) forecasts, which are based on larger product groups, such as a product line.

• Planning bill forecasts, which are based on groups of items in a bill of material format and reflect how an item is sold, not how an item is built.