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 Demand Waterfall Analysis

 

The analytical app Demand Waterfall Analysis helps you improve your forecast accuracy and the stability of your demand and supply plan through an effective analysis of historical forecast data. The app enables a waterfall analysis based on snapshots of forecasts taken at different points in time, which you can display in tables and charts to visualize the evolution of your forecast over time. The analysis helps you identify the types of input that contribute to higher forecast accuracy.

Key Features

  • Analyze snapshots of forecast data as follows:

    • View snapshots in personalized tables and charts.

      Note Note

      The periodicity of snapshots is either weekly or monthly, depending on the periodicity type for waterfall analysis defined for the replication model used.

      You can specify the periodicity type in either of the following transactions:

      • Replication Model Maintenance

        (Recommended when using SAP enhancement package 2 for SAP Supply Chain Management 7.0, Support Package 7, or higher)

      • Replication Model Maintenance (Maintenance View)

      You can access the transactions on the SAP Easy Access screen, under Start of the navigation path Advanced Planning and Optimization Next navigation step APO Administration Next navigation step Data Replication End of the navigation path.

      End of the note.
    • Analyze different types of forecast data (for example, the final forecast or the sales forecast)

    • Display the deviation of past forecast data from actual sales data for the same period

    • Define a critical threshold for forecast deviation and highlight critical values in the table in red

    • Compare several snapshots for a specific period and visualize them in a waterfall chart

  • Analyze forecast accuracy as follows:

    • View the forecast accuracy key performance indicator calculated for the analysis period on the main screen

      The system calculates forecast accuracy by subtracting the value of the forecast error (mean absolute percentage error, MAPE) key figure from 100%. For more information, see SAP Note 1792742Information published on SAP site.

    • Define and display trends of forecast accuracy

      Note Note

      Trends of forecast accuracy are shown in the form of symbols beside each value in the table view of the main screen. See the following table for the meaning of each symbol:

      Symbol

      Meaning

      Upward arrow

      Increasing forecast accuracy compared to the previous snapshot

      Downward arrow

      Decreasing forecast accuracy

      Minus sign

      No trend

      Diamond symbol

      “Not applicable”

      End of the note.
  • Filter the data for your analysis in the following ways:

    • Based on characteristics or navigational attributes

    • By defining an analysis period

System Landscape Requirements

The app consists of front-end components and back-end components. The back-end components and the front-end components are delivered in separate products and have to be installed in a system landscape that is enabled for SAP Fiori.

SAP Smart Business Product

SAP Smart Business 1.0 for SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization SPS 3

Contains Virtual Data Model (VDM)

SAP HANA Live for SAP SCM SPS 9

SAP Business Suite Product

SAP Supply Chain Info Center 1.0

Component for Customer Incidents

For creating customer incidents, use the Supply Chain Info Center – Demand Planning (SCM-APO-ANA-FCS) component.