In Replenishment, forecast data is used at two points:

• In replenishment planning, you can consider forecasted sales to be expected issues. In doing so, sales are considered from the time of planning until the end of the replenishment lead time.

• If you work with dynamic target stock, target stock is calculated again in replenishment planning based on forecasted sales data. In this example, sales are calculated based on the end of the replenishment lead time for the duration of the target range of coverage.

A number of models are available for running a forecast (for example, trend models or constant models). Whether you run a forecast using requirements planning or flexible planning functions depends on the type of Inventory Management used.

If you use MM-based Inventory Management, you can run a forecast using the requirements planning functions. You maintain the forecast parameters for each site in the article master. You can also select the periods in which the forecast values should be updated, for example, each day, week or month.

If you use Replenishment-based Inventory Management, you can run a forecast using the flexible planning functions. Forecast parameters in flexible planning are either entered online for each planning object (for example, a combination of recipient and article) or online in a forecast profile.

Before you can do this, you must have activated updating of the information structure S130 in the Retail Information System (RIS) that contains the forecast data for Replenishment. The historical values for the application are determined using this structure. The period data for planning is defined in the information structure and is therefore the same for all planning objects in the structure.