Phase-In Profile 

Definition

Forecast curve that the system creates using historical data of products that are in the same phase-in groups. The system uses this profile to create forecast values for newly introduced products that belong to this phase-in group.

Use

To create a forecast for a new product, you assign a suitable phase-in profile to the new product. To create this phase-in profile, you assign newly introduced products that have a similar sales history to the same phase-in group. Using historical values of these products from the first period, the system then creates a phase-in profile for the phase-in group.

You can define the characteristics of the phase-in groups and the resulting phase-in profile in the IMG activity Phase-in Groups in Customizing for Advanced Planning and Optimization under Supply Chain Planning → Service Parts Planning (SPP) → Forecast.

Structure

A phase-in profile is defined by the following parameters for phase-in groups:

·        Number of periods that it consists of

·        Maximum number of historical periods that a product may have in order to be considered during the creation of the phase-in profile

·        Minimum number of products that must be available to create a phase-in profile

If there is a large deviation between the historical periods within a group, a phase-in group can consist not just of a standard profile, but also of multiple phase-in profiles. In this case, the phase-in group consists of a profile for high demand, a profile for medium demand, and a profile for low demand. For a profile for high demand, the system calculates the average of the historical data of both products whose historical data shows the highest demand. For a profile for low demand, the system calculates the average of the historical data of both products whose historical data shows the lowest demand. The system calculates a profile for medium demand using the historical data of all other products in the phase-in group. For a system to create several profiles for one phase-in group, the following conditions must be met:

·        There must be a minimum number of products.

·        The deviation between products with low average values and products with medium average values must be greater than a certain minimum variance.

·        The deviation between products with high average values and products with medium average values must be greater than a certain minimum deviation.