How To Guide

X3-Smart Forecast V8

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 2

X3 SETUP ...................................................................................................................................... 4
SUPERVISOR PARAMETER VALUES - SUP ................................................................................................ 4
STOCK PARAMETER VALUES - STO ......................................................................................................... 5
CALCULATE TIME PERIODS - XASFTIME ................................................................................................. 5
VIEW TIME PERIODS - CONSXAA ........................................................................................................... 6
SITE MAINTENANCE GESFCY .............................................................................................................. 7
PRODUCT MAINTENANCE GESITM ....................................................................................................... 8
FUNCTIONAL .............................................................................................................................. 8
EXPORT TO SMART XASFEXP ............................................................................................................. 9
X3 SMART FORECAST IMPORT - XASFIMP ............................................................................................ 10

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Introduction

This document outlines the setup required to use the Sage ERP X3 to Smart Forecast (SF) 8.x interface.
The X3 setup is contained in this document. Mapping and configuration regarding Smart software is
provided in a separate document. The Sage ERP X3 interface provides the following features:

Support for multiple forecast period sizes (weekly, fiscal, calendar month)
Summarized sales demand export using the selected forecast period
Multiple user export controls
Site
Single product or All products
History time-fence option
Lead-time refresh option
Conversion refresh options
ABC class selection
Refresh/regenerate option
Inherent net-change logic that allowing export to recognize and process only new data
Intelligence in export allowing use of SF history and/or market intelligence adjustments without
impacting net-change
X3 setup enabled support of SF aggregation/summarization
Export of additional conversion data (Average Unit Cost, Base Price) allowing aggregated
forecast to be view in different units
Multiple distribution methods for loading monthly forecast into weekly planning buckets for MRP
managed products
Options for calculating and updating safety stock (SS) for MRP planned products.
Update of reorder point (ROP) and safety stock for ROP planned products

Smart Forecast provides multiple forecasting methods and uses proprietary logic for determining the
method product based on the demand history. The control of how the results are used within X3 is
dependent upon the reordering mode defined for the product-site in Sage ERP X3 and parameter settings
within X3.

Reordering Demand Forecast Safety Stock Reorder Point Distribution Method

Method
MRP Yes Optional (Parameter) N/A Import control for non-
weekly forecasts
ROP N/A Yes Yes N/A

Products that are planned via MRP will always create a demand forecast. ROP products do not create a
demand forecast but simply update the safety stock and reorder point.

MRP Planned Products

The planning/reordering method in Sage ERP X3 is dictated by the product-site setup of the Reordering
Mode field. If the X3 product-site record is set as By MRP, the forecast calculated by Smart Forecast is
imported into the Sage ERP X3 Demand Forecast. The demand forecast is comprised of suggested
sales orders (SOS) that span the Forecast Horizon defined within Smart Forecast. The results of the
import can be viewed/maintained through the X3 Demand Planning Function.

Note: The forecast import does not append to existing records. The new forecast replaces any existing
records for a product-site in a given time period.

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The safety stock field (highlighted above) may be updated to reflect a value calculated by SmartForecast
(optional parameter).

Sample Demand Forecast display in X3:

ROP Replenished Products:

In X3, if the product site information is set to ROP then the interface from SmartForecast to X3 updates
the reorder point and safety stock for this type of item. The purchasing lead-time is exported to
SmartForecast when the Refresh Lead-times option is selected.

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X3 Setup

The following section describes the calendar and item setup in X3 to work with Smart Forecast.

SUPERVISOR PARAMETER VALUES - SUP

The XADBSERV & XADBVER parameters must be properly set to point to the database server and
instance.

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STOCK PARAMETER VALUES - STO

There are several STO / XANA parameters that must be initialized for proper use of the Smart
Forecast interface. See window below.

The table below provides a description of the parameters and their possible settings.

Parameter Description Options/Values

XASFINTVER X3 - SF Interface Version The same interface Version 1
support multiples versions of Smart. Conditional Version 2
logic within the interface relies on the version Version 3
number to access data.
Sage ERP V6.x should be
set to Version 3
XASFPERIOD Smart Forecast Period Defines the summarization Weekly
buckets that are used for the export and import of Fiscal Periods
data. Calendar Month
XASFSSUPD SF Safety Stock Update For MRP Planned Yes
products, this parameters dictates if the safety stock No
on the product-site is updated with a new value
calculated by Smart.
XASFTOTFCY Smart Summary Site (Optional) Valid Site
XASFTOTITM Smart Summary Product (Optional) Valid Product

CALCULATE TIME PERIODS - XASFTIME

The calendar is used to determine the level of summarization by time period for Smart Forecast.
There are 3 options and the summarization level is defined on the general STO parameter:

Weekly
Fiscal Period
Calendar Month

To change, the period calendar you must have access to the STO parameter. You do have the
ability to calculate forward. When new time periods are calculated, it is regenerative. The old time
periods are removed.

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Since one of the calendar options is fiscal period, you must specify the company when calculating the
time period.

The function does the calculations. A separate function is available to view the resulting time periods.

VIEW TIME PERIODS - CONSXAA

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SITE M AINTENANCE GESFCY

If you plan to use the Smart feature of summarization, you must define a SF summarization site and
product. To make these items easy to exclude in range selections a convention of starting these
records with a prefix is used. You may choose a different convention but this one is convenient when
filtering data for reports and inquiries.

The setup of a summarization site and product are not mandatory. If they are not setup, you will not
be able to do rollup within Smart software and save the results.
These records are used internally by Smart and are defined in X3 so that are not usable for X3
processing. The sample below illustrates a site setup for this purpose.

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PRODUCT M AINTENANCE GESITM

A product is also required to support the summarization. The key field for defining this product is the
product status. When defined, the product status should be set to Not usable. This will prevent it
from showing up in product selection windows.

Functional

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This section provides detail on the Export to Smart and the X3 Forecast import functions.

EXPORT TO SMART XASFEXP

The X3 Export to Smart function is an interface that is designed to summarize sales demand based
on the Smart Time Periods. It also provides for multiple selection criteria and refresh options.

The following section describes the prompts and their functionality.

1. Warehouse: Enter the site to export to Smart Forecast

2. Product: Enter a specific product to export. This field is optional. If left blank all items with
demand history are exported to Smart Forecast. Wildcards are permitted. An * represents all
characters and a ? represents a wildcard of 1 character. E.g., an item entry of *AB*
indicates any item have an AB product number. An entry of ?AB* indicates an item that
nd rd
has AB in the 2 and 3 character only.
3. Number of Previous Years: This field identifies the number of years of history to export to
Smart Forecast. Note: By default, the export uses netchange logic and only exports data that
has changed since the last export.
4. ABC Class: Enter the ABC class to be exported. If selecting a single product to export and if
you are unsure of the classification, select all classes to be exported. If using a wildcard
product select or not specifying the product id, then the ABC class is used to select the items
according to their ABC Classification. E.g., a blank product and checking the A items
column, means export all items that have been sold that have A type ABC Classification.

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5. Refresh All Sales Data: When exporting to Smart Forecast, only the changes to demand are
sent to Smart Forecast. The data in XAFACTITEM is not deleted. By checking this option, all
data in Smart Forecast will be replaced with the current demand in X3. The XAFACTITEM
table will be cleared and then repopulated.
6. Refresh Lead Times: This field indicated in the lead times in Smart Forecast should be
resent from X3. The first time this interface is run this field needs to be checked so that Smart
forecast obtains a copy of the lead times from X3. If the materials manager have resourced
product or spent time validating/correcting lead-times, this option should be checked to
ensure the most recent information is used for calculating the forecasts.
7. Refresh Conversions: The interface supports two conversions: Cost and Price. The first
time this interface is run this field needs to be checked so that Smart forecast obtains a copy
of the Conversions from X3.
8. Schema ID: If the Lead Times or Conversion data are being refreshed, then the Smart
Forecast Schema ID must be entered.

When finished entering the selection criteria, click the OK button to run the interface and export the
data to the Smart Forecast table(s).

X3 SMART FORECAST IMPORT - XASFIMP

The following process is used to import the forecasts from Smart Forecast into X3:

The following section describes the prompts and their functionality.

1. Schema ID: Enter the Smart Forecast Schema ID.

2. Project ID: Enter the project Id from Smart Forecast. Also, defined in the next section.
3. Safety Stock Project ID: Enter the safety stock project Id from Smart Forecast
4. Distribution Method: When the summarization parameter is set to either fiscal or calendar
month, you must specify the distribution method for the forecast. The planning calendar in
Sage ERP X3 is in weekly buckets. This prompt allows the user to specify how the monthly
forecast is distributed within the weeks. Caution: Using the first or last week option may
result in a month that receives two forecasts (first and last week) followed by a month with
zero forecast. This is the result of the conversion to weekly naturally creating a 4-4-5
calendar. A choice of Week by week or Week 2 will bypass this anomaly.

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5. OK: To run the interface. A log is produced indicating any exceptions that occurred during
the import into Sage ERP X3.

Please refer to the SmartForecast documentation for additional information on Schema, Project
and Safety Stock Project ID.

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