Sales Orders Measure and Comparison of the Forecast with Actuals

You can use the predefined Sales Orders measure to view past due or open sales orders in your demand plan and compare the generated forecast with actuals.

For demand planning, monitoring the performance of the forecast against actuals is important, and the Sales Orders measure enables you to make this comparison. With this information, you can adjust demand for products and organizations; focus on products, organizations, and sales representatives to meet the forecast; and assess the requirement for sales promotions.

Using the shipments history along with the Sales Orders measure, you can have a complete view of both shipped and past due or open sales orders so that you can improve the forecast accuracy.

Note: This feature is specific to demand plans in the Demand Management, Demand and Supply Planning, or Planning Central work area.

Additional Points About the Sales Orders Measure

Note these additional points about the Sales Orders measure:

• The measure reflects the required quantity for the booked item on the scheduled ship date.
• You can't use the measure to view individual sales orders in demand plans.

  The measure information is aggregated by the Customer, Demand Class, Organization, Product, Sales Organization, and Time dimensions.

• For viewing sales orders in your demand plan, you must ensure that the measure is present in the measure catalog that's attached to your plan.

  The measure is in the Default Demand Management Catalog and Default Planning Central Catalog and must be added to user-defined measure catalogs.

• The measure is populated when these conditions are met:
  • The measure is present in the measure catalog that's attached to the demand plan.
  • The demand plan is run with the Refresh with current data option selected on the Parameters tab in the Run Plan dialog box.
• You can collect data for the measure through these methods:
  • Use the Collect Planning Data page.

    On the Supply Planning Data subtab on the Parameters tab, select the supply entity for sales orders.

  • Fill in the file-based data import (FBDI) template named Supply Chain Planning Sales Orders.

    Use the Load Planning Data from Flat Files scheduled process to upload the import template.

  You can't refresh this measure using the Orchestrate Refresh Measures Processes scheduled process.

• By default, to cover the backlog, the measure contains information for all past due or open sales orders with a scheduled ship date that's later than or equal to 90 days before the start date of the plan. The measure also contains information for all past due or open sales orders with a scheduled ship date that's between the plan start date and before or equal to the plan end date.

  To change the number of days before the plan start date for considering sales orders, you must modify the profile value for the MSC_SALES_ORDERS_SNAPSHOT profile option code. For example, if you set the profile value to 30, then the measure contains information for all sales orders with a scheduled ship date that's later than or equal to 30 days before the start date of the plan.

  If you don't want to populate the measure on account of performance-related issues, you must set the profile value to -1. The measure won't be populated even if it's in the measure catalog for the demand plan.

• For configure-to-order (CTO) products, the measure returns information for only the end products. The measure doesn't return information for the options for the base models.
• If you aggregate data for customers using the FBDI template named Supply Chain Planning Key Customer Options, the measure data is aggregated according to your selections in the import template.
• When you use a planning level profile in the demand plan, the Sales Orders measure isn't populated.