Order Forecast section is designed to bring more transparency and predictability for future order planning between you and Metro. By knowing in advance a forecast of Metro's anticipated demand for the upcoming weeks, you can estimate and prepare your next deliveries. In case you have a different forecast, you can also enter it in the system and share it with Metro.
Fast and easy communication right in SCOT for a better delivery performance!
Forecast Sharing page gives you the possibility to see Metro's order forecast, enter your own forecast and check the comparison between these two forecasts. This information is shown in 3 separate tabs/grids: Metro Forecast, Comparison and Your Forecast placed in the right side of the page, under Top - 5 Forecasted Articles:
For sharing your forecast, please use the Upload Forecast button, placed on the left side under Forecast Analysis chart.
NOTE: Forecast data is updated in SCOT every Tuesday.
Forecast upload
In order to upload your forecast, first please download the Metro Forecast. You can do it by clicking on the arrow from the left side, on the top of the grid. The exported file works as a Template.
To use the exported file as template and be able to upload it back in SCOT without any error, please proceed as usually, by setting unrestricted mode and deleting the first two rows from the file. Then you can fill in your data. You can modify the figures in the file by increasing, decreasing, deleting them or adding 0 (zero) as value. If you will delete data from entire row, this row will not be taken into consideration during the upload.
NOTE: If you add 0 (zero) value in a cell, it is considered that you know and share your forecast, and its value is zero. This means that you will not be able to deliver anything to Metro for that article and during that week.
For file upload please click on the Upload Forecast button, then click on the drop zone to select the needed file or just drag and drop the file directly. When the file is selected, click on Upload.
If the upload is successful, the following green message is shown at the top of the screen:
"Excel uploaded successfully. Forecast creation in progress. Please check after some time."
Click on OK, refresh the table and check the new record in the grid.
Now you can check the file with results for View Results column of the grid.
You can also click on the number in the Records Matched column to see exactly the rows that were uploaded. This only works for the latest upload, clicking to the number in older rows/upload will not work.
NOTE: The number of records will not always match. The difference can be caused by empty lines or errors, like in the example below (capture from Result_Metro_Forecast_xxx file, where one row is empty and in another the data has invalid format like negative or not whole number):
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Now you can see uploaded data on Your Forecast tab and check the comparison between those two forecasts (Metro vs. yours):
Comparison
You have two options to check compared forecasts and the discrepancies at article level:
1. for the entire forecasted period (13 weeks)
For a specific article, click on the warning cell in the Discrepancy column. A Discrepancy Summary window pops up, showing you data for all weeks with forecast discrepancies.
NOTE: The number shown in the cell of Discrepancy column (like in the capture below) reflects the number of the weeks where there are discrepancies between the two forecasts - Metro's and yours - excluding the weeks where discrepancies are 0 (zero) or the cells are empty (no forecast added).
NOTE: When Metro forecasted ordered quantity = 0 (zero), this means there is no order planned for that week. But if your forecast is > than 0 (zero), then the variance in percentage is calculated as 0 (zero).
E.g. Metro Forecast = 0, but Your Forecast = 100. Variance as a quantity is 100. As a percentage, variance is 0%.
Variance is 0 when Metro Forecast = Supplier Forecast (either same values or both 0).
2. for one week only
For a specific article, click on the Forecast Variance number for a particular week in the grid. A window pops up, showing you the selected week number and the variance calculated as a quantity and as a percentage.
NOTE: When the quantity forecasted by you is lower than the one forecasted by Metro, variance is reflected as a negative amount.
When Metro's forecast is 0 (zero), variance as a percentage is not reflected in compared data at weekly level.
When Metro's forecast = your forecast, variance of 0 (zero) is reflected in compared data at weekly level. In the grid, the cell for respective week will also have 0 (zero) amount.
Additionally, in the main grid you can check information about Total Absolute Variance and NNBP Variance.
Total Absolute Variance calculates all the differences for entire forecasted period, not considering if the difference in positive or negative. The variance itself (delta between Metro's forecast and your forecast) will be calculated.
E.g. in the capture above: 419+623+179+541+581+642+821+461+453+151+141+283 = 5302
NNBP Variance reflects the absolute difference, for entire forecast period, expressed in money.
NOTE: The grid from Comparison tab is sorted by NNBP Variance (from the highest amount on top to the smallest one on the bottom).
Comments
The Comparison grid gives you the possibility to communicate with Metro by leaving and receiving comments. You have two options to do this:
1. Leave a comment for a particular week, by clicking on that particular week (cell) in the grid. In the pop-up window you can add your comment and send it to Metro.
You will see a message in the upper side of the page Data saved successfully and your comment on the bottom. You can edit the comment ("pen" sign), but cannot delete it. Update button will be enabled (become blue) as soon as any change is done in the comment.
This comment will be visible on Metro's side and Metro admin will have the possibility to answer to you, if needed.
NOTE: Your comment is editable only until Metro admin reads it ("eye" icon will appear).
2. Expand the warning cell from Discrepancy column. As mentioned above, all weeks where there are discrepancies between Metro's and your forecast are shown in the pop-up window. There you can add a comment for a particular week by clicking on the icon in the Comment column or select several weeks and bulk-update them with the same comment.
OR
NOTE: as soon as the comment is read by Metro admin, the checkbox will be disabled.
Please consider that Your Forecast and Comparison switchers will be grey (disabled) if there is no data at all uploaded by you. They are only enabled once data is provided by you. Also, the number of results in all 3 – Metro, Comparison and Your Forecast is always the same.