A forecast is the expected consumption of a part or group of parts as expressed in quantity or monetary value. The forecast is often based on historical results, known market activities, knowledge about new products, local market variations, and experience. Different business areas can store their own forecasts. Master scheduling (MS) and project master scheduling are based on the forecast you enter and the actual backlog of orders; they create a master schedule or a project master schedule, i.e. a manufacturing plan or a purchasing plan, from this information. MS means matching your company's sales forecast to the company's available resources and capacity in order to balance supply and demand.
Forecast consumption is the process of decrementing forecast based on the receipt of actual orders. The essence of forecast consumption is that forecast, together with actual demand, forms a blended picture of the total demand over the planning horizon. The actual demand consumes forecast in the forecast consumption process.
When an actual order is received, the system subtracts it from the forecast in the period the order is scheduled to ship. You can choose to relieve forecast in the period corresponding to the customer need date or in the original quoted shipment date. If there is no forecast remaining for the period, the system can consume forecast in earlier time periods. When a customer order line is booked or changed, a check is made toward the unconsumed forecast to determine whether the order line can be fulfilled.