Setting in Mass processing activity

[Former Member]

Hello Forecasting Experts,

There are two parameter settings while creating an Forecasting mass processing activity -

1. Always use job profile

2. Generate profile and assign it

Can someone tell me what is the effect of using each above setting? Please give some recommendation as to which one has to be used when?

Thanks in advance.

Kelly

[somnath_manna · Accepted solution]

It is possible to carry out statistical forecast for a product interactively. There are settings during Interactive Statistical Forecasting to create new forecast profiles as GUIDs or do not save forecast profiles etc. If you save the selection assignment to the forecast profile then the background job will consider it and not the forecast profile as mentioned in the background job. However its possible to override that as per the Activity Control Parameter settings.

Additionally look at [Adaptive Forecasting|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm41/helpdata/en/8f/9d6937089c2556e10000009b38f889/frameset.htm] for more details on the usage of these control parameters.

Hope this helps,

Somnath

Edited by: Somnath Manna on Feb 17, 2010 4:14 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Somnath Manna,

Thanks for your answer. I had some awareness on the settings which I can use interactively using the GUIDs. However in Mass processing activity, I have used the setting 'Generate profile and assign itu2019 and ran the job. I saw the results that each CVC has used a suitable strategy according to strategy 56. Does that mean that I can continue to use this setting ('Generate profile and assign itu2019)? Or should i be removing this strategy (56) and apply the strategy that was suggested in the first run. For example, letu2019s say one CVC was identified as and assigned a Seasonal regression model and I have to go physically and assign that particular strategy to this CVC, so that it does not get assigned a new strategy the next time profile that has 56 runs?

Please help.....

Kelly

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Kelly,

These are not one or the other. You can have none of the options checked and things can run fine.

'Always Use Job Profile' option means system will use the forecast profile specified in the activity, regardless of what forecast profile assignments the demand planners may have made. This can be problematic. If the forecast profile in the activity is seasonal and it processes a CVC that should really have a constant model, the system may interpret noise as seasonality and give you what it thinks the seasonality is. This is a recipe for higher forecast error.

'Generate profile and assign it' options instructs the system to create a new profile with a GUID and assign it. Strategy 56 was made for this... Seems like it would take longer to process your forecast this way.

'Generate new profile when errors' option will only generate a new forecast profile and assign it when the system encounters an error during normal calculation. Example of this kind of error is when the model is Seasonal but you have some periods with blank history mixed in there -- the system can't calculate a seasonal index on zero history. In this situation the system would generate a profile with a GUID and assign it. The good news is that these are then easy to find in trxn /SAPAPO/MSDP_FCST2 since they have a GUID. You can then have a demand planner go back to the CVC and tune the model properly.

(Warning! Business Process advice ahead!! Proceed with extreme caution!!!)

One strategy with these options is: Use the 'Generate profile and assign it' when you're first getting underway at go-live. Let the system do the heavy number crunching the first few times. Then have your demand planners tune the models for A and B products/families. When they've had a fair amount of time to get all of those done, delete all GUID profile assignments (there's a button for this in trxn /SAPAPO/MSDP_FCST2 called 'Delete Generated Profiles'). So now, all actively tuned models (A & B products) have a demand-planner-assigned profile and all C products have no profile assignment. During the forecast calculation run, A & B products will follow their assigned forecast profiles and all C products will use the profile specified in the activity. In this strategy, none of the options in the activity are selected.

Hope this helps!

Dan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dan, Thanks for your extremely insightful answer. If you can provide some more clarification, that would be very helpful.

1. 'Generate new profile when errors' option will only generate a new forecast profile and assign it when the system encounters an error during normal calculation. Example of this kind of error is when the model is Seasonal but you have some periods with blank history mixed in there -- the system can't calculate a seasonal index on zero history.

I tried changing an activity by assigning forecast profile that has strategy 31 which I knew was initially throwing errors for couple of CVCs in a selection ID and then check/click the option 'Generate new profile when errors' , but the system gives a message saying , this can be used only for strategy 56. I understand this is a valid message had I used 31 in fcst profile in the activity and then went for option 'Generate profile and assign itu2019. But according your explanation, I thought If I use 31 in a Fcst profile and assign it in activity and then run a job on a selection for which lets say for 10 CVCs there is no history and then I could make use of the second option u2018Generate new profile when errorsu2019 and then the system will run 56 and choose a better model other than used in the activity fcst profile (in this case 31). I am I doing something wrong?

2. This trasaction /SAPAPO/MSDP_FCST2 is primary used to just check which strategy was used by which CVC/selection right, ideally we do the assignment of CVCs or even selection ID to the forecast profile either interactively or in batch activity. Or is this place more frequently used and more appropriate to make the assignment for forecast profiles to selection IDs or selection of data(CVCs), as the name of transaction indicates - Assign forecast profiles to selections.

Your feedback was of great help to me

Thanks again,

KW

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Kelly,

Sorry it has taken so long for a response. I thought the forum would notify me by e-mail on any responses but...

On your first question, I was a little too breezy on my explanation. The background activity Master Profile definitely has to be set to strategy 56 in order for the system to generate a new model when the original model errors out. My understanding is that if a planner has assigned a Seasonal model interactively, and the error is too high as measured by the diagnosis group, then the system will calculate a new model using strategy 56. But I need to test this out to see if it's really the case...sorry for the confusion!

One your second question, I agree with you. We do the same thing - mostly use that screen to troubleshoot profile assignments and manage inactive forecasts (in our system, once a planner assigns the 'inactive' profile, they can't remove it without IT help). I don't think it would be practical to assign forecasts in this screen unless you were doing a mass change to some known selections. Mostly, we go into /SAPAPO/MSDP_FCST2 in display mode and only if we see a problem that has to be corrected do we go back in there in change mode.

Dan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dan,

Thanks again for very useful feedback. Your understanding of how 'Generate new profile when errors' works is correct, I tested this with initially assigning a Seasonal model with a diagnosis group where I set low values for MAPE, and then ran again using the above option, the system first tried Winters/31 and then since the error value exceeded from the predefined one, the system chose strategy 11 with lower MAPE and assigned a GUID profile. However, there was some forecast with Winters model and no forecast with the strategy 11, this was weird though.

But I think this 2nd option works only when you use a diagnosis group and when the values exceed from those in the group. It does not simply try a profile assigned interactively and its not like, It then checks for its auitability and if its not, then assign an alternative strategy using a GUID. It does use Diagnosis group. If your findings show anything different than this, please share. Also thanks for clarifying on my second point as well. - KW

[Former Member]

Hi Kelly,

These mass processing steps will be generally used to generate

forecasts for huge number of products while optimizing the

system resources.

Another advantage is that you can assign parallel processing

application with that job profile

These job profiles with various activities can be attached to

process chains as we require to generate forecasts as we

desired

Regards

R. Senthil Mareeswaran.