Key Figures in SAP APO

Excerpt from Demand Planning with SAP APO – Concepts and Design by Shreekant Shiralkar and Avijit Dutta.

Key figures
Key figures constitute one of the main building blocks for the planning area as demand planning revolves around them. Key figures represent the parameters that have numerical values.

Examples of key figures are: sales history, sales forecast, revenue, etc.

Number values for key figures are called key figure values.

There are three types of key figures:

• Quantity: Used for physical quantities
• Amount: Used for monetary purposes
• Number: Numbers that do not have any currency, or unit of measures (e.g., factors)

We will explain a few of the key figures below that we use in our business scenario.

Historical input
The value for the historical input key figure is used for forecasting. This key figure is mentioned in the Read Historical Data section of the univariate forecast profile. For our business scenario this key figure is history (9AVHISTORY).

Corrected history
This is the key figure that stores values after correcting the historical input value through the system, or manually.

Forecasting based on corrected history
Set the indicator Read Corr. History Data from Planning Version in the univariate forecast profile settings for the system to use the corrected history
data for calculating the forecast, in spite of maintaining the historical input key figure in the univariate forecast profile.

The corrected history references the actual history and then corrects it based on: values entered in the Days in period field in the univariate forecast profile, or the outliers (exceptions) correction field in the univariate forecast profile.

For our business scenario this key figure is called corrected history (9AVCORHIST).

Original forecast or baseline forecast
This key figure stores the original forecasting output. It is maintained in the master forecast profile. The existing phase-in/phase-out profile is also applied to this forecast. For our business scenario this key figure is called forecast (9ADFCST).

Corrected forecast
This key figure stores the forecast that is obtained after correcting the original, or baseline forecast, based on the actual number of workdays in a period. Workdays in a period is maintained as Days in period in the univariate forecast profile. For our business scenario this key figure is called the corrected forecast (9AVCORFCST).

Promotion
This key figure stores the promotion value as an absolute number. If a promotion is maintained in percentages, then the system will convert that to an absolute number before storing it in the promotion key figure. For our business scenario, this key figure is called promotion 1 (9APROM1).

Manual correction
We introduce this key figure to store values that would adjust for any inputs from several departments/stakeholders and thereby reflect consensus planning. We also adjust the values in this key figure to correct any alerts. For our business scenario this key figure is called the manual correction (9AMANUP).

Total forecast
We introduce this key figure to store the total forecast value after suitably adding values stored in the key figures: corrected forecast (9AVCORFCST), manual correction
(9AMANUP), and promotion 1 (9APROM1).

Total forecast = corrected forecast + manual correction + promotion 1

For our business scenario this key figure is called the total forecast (9ATOTFC).

Keep reading in Demand Planning with SAP APO – Concepts and Design by Shreekant Shiralkar and Avijit Dutta.

Demand planning (DP) is an important process for supply chain management (SCM) across businesses and has a significant impact on the overall efficiency of business operations. In this book, you will learn how to apply key demand planning concepts to SAP APO DP and familiarize yourself with important considerations like statistical forecasting. Using a detailed case study and screenshots, you will build a strong foundation on demand planning concepts and design in SAP APO along with an understanding of advanced design in APO DP.
This expert guide to demand planning in SAP APO covers:

– SCM Context, Business Processes and Functionality for Different SAP APO Modules including Technical Architecture and Integration
– Example Business Scenario and Overall APO DP/ APO BW Process Flow Diagram
– Demand Planning Concepts and Business Rationale for APO DP Design
– Design and Deployment of Demand Planning in ERP, APO BW, and APO DP using Configuration, Master Data, and Transactions