Enhanced Planning Worksheet: How to Plan Components Using Both Forecast and Sale

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand the best way to use Enhanced Planning Worksheet together with Enhanced Forecasting for long-term purchasing planning.

Our setup is:

• We forecast demand for our finished goods (Level 0 assembly items).
• We purchase the Level 1, Level 2, etc. components.
• We would like planning to consider both:
  • Actual Sales Orders
  • Forecast Demand
• Our planning horizon is typically 6–12 months.

The goal is to generate Suggested Purchase Orders for purchased components so we can provide suppliers with visibility of future demand and plan purchases proactively.

For example:

• Item 10297 (Assembly Item) has a forecast of 20 pcs over the coming months.
• Component 14989 is used in the Assembly BOM with quantity 1.
• Item 14989 is a purchased item with:
  • Replenishment System = Purchase
  • Reordering Policy = Fixed Reorder Quantity
  • Reorder Point = 8
  • Safety Stock = 5
  • Order Quantity = 2
  • Lead Time = 30 Days

When I run Calculate Regenerative Plan in Enhanced Planning Worksheet, the suggested purchase quantities seem to be driven primarily by the reorder point setup and not by the total forecasted demand over the planning horizon.

My questions are:

1. Can Enhanced Planning Worksheet generate suggested purchase orders based on both Sales Orders and Forecast Demand at the same time?
2. Is forecast demand on Assembly Items expected to explode down to purchased BOM components?
3. If the goal is to see suggested purchase orders for Level 1/Level 2 purchased components based on 6–12 months of forecasted demand, what planning policy is recommended?
4. Is Fixed Reorder Quantity the correct setup for this requirement, or should another replenishment policy be used?
5. Are there any Enhanced Planning Worksheet settings that need to be enabled to ensure forecast demand is considered when planning purchased components?

Any guidance or examples of how others are using EPW for forecast-driven component purchasing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!