web
You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
close
Skip to main content
Community site session details

Community site session details

Session Id :
Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce / Why does Master Planni...
Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce
Suggested answer

Why does Master Planning always ignore demand forecasts dated in the past?

(0) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by DC-13102017-0
I’m raising a question that has been raised before in the hope that somebody can give me a sensible answer.  The question is: Why does D365FO Master Planning always ignore demand forecasts dated in the past?  I was hoping that this would be resolved in Planning Optimization, but unfortunately it hasn’t.

I can understand why such forecasts are sometimes ignored – I just don’t know why they are always ignored.  In particular, when the 'Transactions - Reduction key' forecast consumption method is used, and the Reduction key that’s used has an Effective date of the 1st of the current month (as shown below), I believe forecasts dated prior to today, but in the current month, must be included when either Master Planning or Planning Optimization is run.  I would therefore argue that it’s a bug that they aren’t being included.

Here is an example of such a Reduction key:



I know you can use a period key to split a monthly forecast into weekly (or even daily) forecasts, but this is only a workaround and doesn’t really solve the problem.

A common response to this question is that any forecasts dated in the past should be ignored because they would have been consumed if they were accurate forecasts. I would argue that this requires forecasts to be 100% accurate, so is impractical.  Also, even if the forecast was 100% accurate, a slight delay in shipping a sales order that previously consumed all or part of a past forecast could cause it to consume a later forecast, which will result in an increased planned order quantity for no reason.

Do you have an opinion on this?
Categories:
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    Laurens vd Tang Profile Picture
    Laurens vd Tang 3,582 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    Why does Master Planning always ignore demand forecasts dated in the past?
    Good day,
     
    I believe it is a standard Dynamics 365 SCM feature, see following link for more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/supply-chain/master-planning/reduction-keys
     
    You can also consult the following link to a previous discussion: https://community.dynamics.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=449bc978-a264-ef11-bfe2-7c1e521be8b5
     
    Best regards,
    Laurens van der Tang
  • DC-13102017-0 Profile Picture
    DC-13102017-0 on at
    Why does Master Planning always ignore demand forecasts dated in the past?
    Hi Laurens
     
    Thanks for your response.  I understand it's a standard feature of D365FO but I would be interested in knowing if anybody has found a smart way of working around it because I believe always ignoring forecasts dated in the past is fundamentally flawed and can create stockouts.
     
    For example, we provide a Demand Forecasting solution for D365FO that automatically splits monthly forecasts using period keys and we are examining the development of a 'dynamic' period key that effectively rolls un-consumed past forecasts forward to get around this problem.  I would be interested if anybody has tried anything like this.
     
    Regards
    Duncan Cox

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

News and Announcements

Join experts in person to explore low code and AI agents at the Power Platform Community Conference sponsored by Microsoft

Quick Links

Responsible AI policies

As AI tools become more common, we’re introducing a Responsible AI Use…

Abhilash Warrier – Community Spotlight

We are honored to recognize Abhilash Warrier as our Community Spotlight honoree for…

Congratulations to the September Top 10 Community Leaders!

These are the community rock stars!

Leaderboard > Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce

#1
CA Neeraj Kumar Profile Picture

CA Neeraj Kumar 947

#2
André Arnaud de Calavon Profile Picture

André Arnaud de Cal... 248 Super User 2025 Season 2

#3
BillurSamdancioglu Profile Picture

BillurSamdancioglu 176 Most Valuable Professional

Last 30 days Overall leaderboard

Featured topics

Product updates

Dynamics 365 release plans