12 Forecast Engine

Forecast Engine provides access to the tasks used to configure, prepare, and review forecasts in Oracle Retail AI Foundation Cloud Service. From the Forecast Engine landing page, you can manage forecast configurations and supporting master data, define forecasting strategies for new items and locations, and review, adjust, and approve generated forecasts.

Use Manage Forecast Configurations to create forecast run types, test forecast runs, manage configuration parameters, and map run types to the applications that consume the forecasts. A forecast run type acts as a template for forecast runs, while each forecast run is an instance of a particular run type.

Use Manage Master Data to maintain information that supports forecast generation, including sales plans and flexible groups. Sales plans support in-season Bayesian forecasting, while flexible groups provide merchandise and location groupings used when estimating forecast components such as seasonality and elasticity.

Use New Item Setup and New Location Setup to define how forecasts are generated when sufficient sales history is not available. For new items, you can select an appropriate substitution method and, where applicable, identify a like item or provide base demand. For new locations, you can assign a like location and an adjustment factor. See New Item Setup and New Location Setup.

Use Forecast Review to examine forecast components and historical demand, make permitted adjustments, and approve forecasts. The workspace supports grid, chart, and pivot-table views and provides additional approval information for the selected product and location. Forecast Review describes the review and approval workflow.