Setting Up Demand Planning

To use demand planning to create demand plans and supply plans for items, complete the following steps:

Enable features for demand planning. (Procedure follows.)
Set Inventory Preferences
Set up Demand Planning on Item Records.

To enable features for demand planning:

Go to Setup > Company > Enable Features.
On the Items & Inventory subtab, check the Demand Planning box.

Note:
Advanced Inventory Management must be enabled.
To use the demand planning feature for assembly items, the Work Order feature must be enabled. Check the Work Orders box.
Click Save.

Set Inventory Preferences

There are preferences you can set that affect how Demand Planning functions:

Transactions to Consider

On the Inventory Management Preferences page, choose a setting for the Transactions to Consider preference. This preference setting affects demand planning calculations by determining the transactions that are included in demand calculations.
- Choose the Orders setting to use approved, non-canceled sales orders to calculate demand. Work Orders are also considered if the feature is enabled.
- Choose the Actual Sales setting to use cash sales and invoices to calculate demand. Then, sales orders are not used to calculate demand. Only the cash sales and invoices that bill them are included in demand calculations. Assembly builds are also considered if the Assemblies feature is enabled.
Inventory demand calculations consider only transactions that decrease an item's stock level. For example, an assembly build increases the stock level for the assembly item and decreases the stock level for the assembly item's components. In this case, the demand plan calculation considers the assembly build only for the assembly item's components and not for the assembly item.

Note:
If you use both sales orders and standalone cash sales/invoices, choose the Actual Sales option.

To set this preference, go to Setup > Accounting > Inventory Management Preferences.

For detailed steps on setting this preference, see Setting Up Advanced Inventory Management.
Allow Purchase of Assembly Items

Use this preference to permit NetSuite to create purchase orders instead of work orders when making supply recommendations for assemblies. You can also define purchase pricing on assembly item records.

This preference also enables you to add assembly items to purchase orders, vendor bills, checks, credit card transactions, and vendor credits.

To set inventory preferences, go to Setup > Accounting > Accounting Preferences.
Click the Order Management subtab.
Demand Planning and Allocation

If you use the Demand Planning feature, you might also consider using automated allocation. For more information, see Demand Planning and Inventory Allocation.
Demand Planning and Routing

If you also use the Manufacturing Routing and Work Center feature, see Setting Routing Preferences.
Demand Time Fence

Enter the days between zero and 365. This number is used as the default demand time fence and shows in the Demand Time Fence field on item records you create. You can change this default number, if necessary, when you create each item record. This field defaults to zero.
Planning Time Fence

Enter the days between zero and 365. This number is used as the default demand time fence and shows in the Planning Time Fence field on item records you create. You can change this default number, if necessary, when you create each item record. This field defaults to zero.

To enable features for demand planning:

Set Inventory Preferences

Related Topics