Business Structure for Forecasting

The business structure is the same one that is used in other parts of the application, with nodes such as divisions, regions, sites and departments reflecting points at which you can roll up or break down forecast data. However, the Forecast Planner Volume view shows data at a finer level than the lowest level of the business structure; for example, it is able to display volume driver data for sales, customers, and items within a department, as well as jobs within a department.

Your system administrator will have set up the business structure that is reflected in the tools that you use to set up, run and view forecasts. This section provides some general information regarding the components of the business structure and how they are involved in the forecasting tasks you perform.

An optimal business structure takes into account:

• The volume drivers (such as sales and customers) that you use to track volume data
• Your labour standards and jobs, which convert the volume driver data to hours of required labour
• The effective dates of forecast categories (for example, jobs) and locations.

The business structure acts as a framework for forecast locations and categories that

• Indicate where volume data is collected
• Display actual current volume data as well as estimated business volumes for a future date.
• Show labour hours, costs and other labour forecast details

For example, you can count how many pies are sold in the bakery so that you can forecast how many pies to bake at a point in the future. In this case Bakery is a department category on the business structure, and Pies is a sub-category under Bakery. The Forecast Planner uses a labour standard associated with Pies to forecast the amount of labour needed to support the forecasted number of pies.

Forecast category property sets are assigned or inherited for each category and sub-category on the business structure. The Forecasting Engine uses category property sets to determine how much historical driver data to collect for the forecast and which volume forecast method to use when it generates the volume and labour forecasts.

Business drivers (and other forecast factors, such as hours of operations and special events) are also assigned to categories on the business structure. The drivers indicate which types of data are collected and used by each category.

Forecast categories

The business structure includes the following levels, known as forecast categories in forecasting:

Category/Icon	Description
Site	A site category is a collection of departments in the business structure; for example, a store. At the site level, you can view a summary of volume and labour forecast data for the entire site as well as for each department under the site. A forecast can be run at the site level or department level.
Department	A department category is a collection of sub-categories and jobs, and a member of a site. At the department level, you can view a summary of volume and labour forecast data for the department. You can also view a volume forecast for each category and a labour forecast for each job in the department. You can run a forecast at the site level or department level. You cannot run a forecast below the department level.
General	A general category is any node on the business structure that is not a site or department. General categories below a department have one or more volume drivers associated with them, such as sales or items. They display the volume driver data for that category and provide greater granularity in forecasting volume and labour requirements than the department level does. For example, a Bakery department can forecast volume for the department as a whole or separately for the categories beneath the department level, such as: Bread Cookies Pies General categories above a site, such as a region or division, allow managers to view volume driver data rolled up from categories under them. You cannot run a forecast above the site level.
Linked category	A linked category allows you to track forecasted business volume for a site in two views without double-counting. This makes it possible to forecast labour requirements in different departments using the same volume data. A typical set of linked categories for retail is Front end linked to Departments: Front end tracks volume that leaves the store at the registers, and Departments tracks the area from which the business originated. Jobs in both the front end and in the department may be affected by the same volume data.

Select a location or category

Note: The locations and categories displayed on your business structure are determined by the configuration of your Forecasting Category Profile. Your Forecasting Category Profile is defined and assigned by your system administrator.

Step 1. Select a forecast week

Click the drop-down box and select an option. If you select Select Week, select a day on the calendar in the week that you want to see. The forecast week that opens starts on the first day of the defined forecast week, regardless of what day you select.

Only forecast categories that are effective in the selected forecast week appear on the business structure

Step 2. Select a location or category

Click a category or click a plus sign to expand to the subcategories. The category that you select includes all subcategories that are effective for the selected forecast week.

If there is a date following a category on the business structure, it is the effective date range of the category. Otherwise, the category is effective Forever.

Note: The category that you select appears in the Category field at the top of the workspace.

Forecast Category attributes

Different categories or different parts of the business structure can have different attributes. For example:

• Start day for the forecast week
• The forecast week determines the range for which volume and labour data are calculated. Only forecast categories that are effective for the selected forecast week display on the business structure.
• Scheduling and forecast engines that consume forecast data will generate schedules and forecasts appropriate to the location and honour differing work week start days.
• Time at which the forecast day begins
• The default start time for the forecast week and each forecast day is midnight.

Linked forecast categories

Linked departments allow POS volume data to be used for labour calculations at two different departments.

For example, by linking two departments of “registers” and “shelf stocking” POS volume data such as an item scanned at the register appears in both departments in the Volume workspace. This volume is used (via a labour standard) to generate the labour of scanning the item, and also (via another labour standard) to generate the labour of stocking that item on a store shelf.

the labour of stocking that item on a shop shelf.

The following rules apply to linked categories:

• Categories under a site can be linked. Sites themselves cannot be linked.
• Categories that you want to link must have the same effective date span.
• Linked categories must be at the same level, beneath the same parent. A forecast category cannot have a linked relationship with a forecast category above it or below it.
• To move a linked category, first unlink it.

You can create one set of linked forecast categories per site. This allows you to track forecasted business volume for a site in two views:

• How the business left the site. For retail, this is the point-of-sale (transaction data)
• Which department generated the volume

Department data can be rolled up into one total, and transaction data can be rolled up into another total. Because transaction data feeds department totals, if these two categories are linked, only one of them rolls up to the Site level, and double-counting of the volume data is avoided.

However, labour requirements may be affected by the volume at both the department and the site. Noting the volume at both categories allows the labour forecast to accurately reflect the workload Specifies a number of employees needed for a certain job at a certain location over a certain span of time. at both sites.

A typical set of linked categories for retail is Front End or Grocery linked to Departments or Registers. You can create duplicate relationships between two forecast categories that are at the same level in the business structure and that belong to the same “parent”. A forecast category cannot have a linked relationship with a forecast category above it or below it.