AIM Production Planning lets you set a demand forecast for assembled products. When production demand is enabled, replenishments of assembled items become demand points on their components. The date and quantity of this demand are driven by the Production Duration settings on your Bill of Materials (BOM).
Once you submit a forecast with production demand enabled, replenishments appear in the AIM Replenishments tab. These show when components need to be purchased and sub-assemblies need to be assembled, covering all expected replenishments in addition to what is currently booked in Unleashed as open transactions. This saves significant time when planning dates and quantities across a supply chain.
Using these suggestions, you can book in additional replenishments for a set period. For example, you might run a 12-month forecast every week and book replenishments for the following four weeks based on current calculated stock movement and forecast demand.
Forecast demand for assembled products
To set your demand forecast for an assembled product:
Ensure the correct warehouse is selected in the header.
Click Demand in the chart toggle selector to open the Demand Forecast Analysis chart.
Drag the blue dots up or down to set the forecast demand per month.
đNote: You can only set forecast demand for the current and future months. Past months are read-only and can be compared against actual demand achieved.
Configure a stock holding and replenishment strategy
Use the right-hand strategy panel to set a stock holding strategy for your assembled item.
AIM calculates replenishments when the stock on hand (SOH) forecast for a given day is not sufficient to cover demand over the following days, based on your minimum days of stock setting. Your maximum days of stock setting determines the size of each replenishment.
Calculate production demand
Once you have set a forecast and stock holding strategy, configure AIM to calculate demand on components based on the replenishments in your forecast.
In the right-hand panel, locate the Plan Production section.
Set Create Component Demand to Yes. This allocates the parent product's forecast demand to its components based on the BOM configuration.
Set a source warehouse; this is where production takes place and where component stock will be drawn down in forecasts.
Click Save Forecast in the top right.
Replenishments will then be calculated and appear in the AIM Replenishments tab for your assembled product and each of its components.
đ¤ Tip: Consider setting a stock holding strategy for each component by creating a forecast for each one. You can skip the demand-setting step for components unless you plan to add additional sales demand on top of the automatically calculated production demand.
If a component is shared by multiple assembled products that all have component demand enabled, the component's forecast will represent the combined demand, allowing you to plan across complex, multi-level supply chains. Check the table below the forecast to see details of related components and parent assemblies for the open forecast.
How demand forecasting works with product modelling and BOM configurations
Demand forecasting plays a key role in production planning, helping you maintain stock levels that meet future requirements without overproduction or understocking. It is important to understand how demand forecasting, product modelling, and BOM configurations interact, and where manual steps are required.
Product groups in modelling and forecasting
Selecting product groups during the modelling process does not automatically create demand in the forecasting module. Demand must be set explicitly at the assembled-product level within the Forecasting tool. Product groups help organise and categorise items, but they do not populate demand figures in the Forecasting report automatically.
BOM durations and demand setting
Configuring BOM durations sets the timing for material requirements, but does not automatically create demand in the Forecasting report. Once BOM durations are configured, you must still set production planning separately within each product forecast. This manual step connects forecast demand with the required replenishments, using the timing information from your BOM configuration.