During the demand review meeting, demand planners require a quick way to review and analyze how the plan has changed over time in the past and is likely to change in the future. The plan can be a demand plan, financial plan, and so on. To evaluate how the plan has evolved over time, it is necessary to archive the plan in each S&OP planning cycle. The trigger to archive or take a snapshot can be at the end of each S&OP planning cycle or whenever the plan is finalized in the typical (monthly) S&OP cycle.
The key figure snapshots or archives in S&OP can be used to create waterfall reports as shown in the figure, Snapshot Key Figures.
To check how key figure values have evolved over time, you can capture and compare multiple historical snapshots of a key figure. The key figure values captured by a snapshot are stored in a snapshot key figure, which is displayed in your planning view in Microsoft Excel along with your other key figures. The name of a snapshot key figure is made up of the key figure name and additional information to show that this key figure is a snapshot key figure.
What is the difference between snapshots and the change history? A snapshot captures key figure values at a particular point in time, that is, when you run the snapshot operator in the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel. The change history functionality (which is not the same as the Change History snapshot type) automatically keeps track of all changes to a key figure enabled for the change history, without the need to run a planning operator.
Key figure snapshots (Original type) - for general forecasting purposes
The snapshot definition includes the following information:
One or more key figures that are to be captured in the snapshot.
A suffix that is used to identify the snapshot key figures.
The number of snapshots that can be taken of each key figure (a maximum of 12 is allowed).
The time range for the snapshot (for example, for the next six periods starting with the current period).
Each snapshot definition that the configuration expert creates is automatically assigned to the snapshot operators (Snapshot operator and Redo Snapshot operator).
Taking and Redoing Original Snapshots:
You can take snapshots in the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel by running the Snapshot operator. If the snapshot contains errors or incorrect data, you can retake it using the Redo Snapshot operator.
Example:
After you have taken a snapshot of a key figure such as Customer Demand (CONSENSUDEMAND), the key figure amount for a particular month is changed, as decided in the monthly S&OP planning process. To capture this agreed amount and discard the snapshot containing the previously agreed amount, you can use the Redo Snapshot operator. It overwrites only the latest version of the snapshot.
You can also schedule these operators to run periodically as background jobs.
Note that the following snapshot settings are predefined in the configuration of the snapshot and cannot be changed when you run the operators in Excel:
Time range for the snapshot
Key figures that are to be captured in the snapshot
You can take up to nine snapshots of a key figure, producing a time-elapsed view of your data. To identify a snapshot key figure, a suffix (for example, SN) and a number are added to the key figure's technical name. The most recent snapshot is numbered 1. When a new snapshot is created, the number of the previous snapshot is increased by 1.
Lag-based snapshots - mostly for Demand Sensing, but also suitable for other planning purposes
Lag-based snapshots are used for demand sensing and other planning purposes. The snapshots are taken of selected planning objects with predefined lags and saved in a key figure that has Lag as a root attribute at its base planning level.
Lags represent the number of periods between the period in which the forecast is created and the period for which the forecast is calculated. For example, a forecast that is calculated in week 1 for week 3 is a lag 2 forecast.
Note
When configuring lag-based snapshot, you have to satisfy the requirements for the Special Key Figures. These are technical key figures that are necessary to manage Unit of Measure conversions when lags are being created. They are not exposed to the end user in planning views.The lag-based key figure attribute allows you to save only the snapshots that are relevant for your business process, which can be useful in statistical forecasting (for example, with monthly periodicity), in Demand Sensing (with calendar week periodicity), and in inventory optimization.
For example, you can take snapshots of the Statistical Forecast Quantity key figure using the monthly lags 1, 3, and 6, or compare the accuracy of demand forecasts with the daily lags 2, 3, and 4. For Demand Sensing, typically all weekly lags are required starting from lag 0.
To allow you to take a snapshot from the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel using the Application Jobs app and using the corresponding snapshot job, the configuration expert must first define the required snapshot in Manage Lag-Based Snapshots app.