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.
Note
Unlike snapshots that capture key figure values at a particular point in time, Change History tracks all changes to key figures (that are enabled for this feature), without the need for a planning operator.There are two types of snapshots that can be taken in SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution.
Original Snapshots
With an original snapshot, planners can capture values of specific key figures at a specific point in time. By comparing several snapshots in the planning view that were taken over time, you can see how the key figure values have evolved.
Original snapshots can be used to capture one or more key figures in one go. The key figures are captured for a fixed time range, for example, for the next six periods starting with the current period. Depending on the configuration, you can take up to 12 snapshots of a key figure, thereby producing a time-lapse view of your data. You can identify a snapshot key figure by a suffix (for example, SN) and a number that 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.
Original Snapshots are configuration items. Each snapshot definition that the configuration expert creates is automatically assigned to the snapshot operators.
Lag-Based Snapshots
These snapshots are taken of selected planning objects with predefined lags and saved in a key figure that has Lag as a root attribute in its base planning level.
Lags represent the number of periods between the period in which 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.
Typically lag-based snapshots are used in statistical forecasting, demand sensing and forecast error calculations. These key figures are visible in planning views.
Manage Lag-Based Snapshots app, allows users to manage settings for lag-based snapshots and create new snapshots, provided that lag-based key figures are configured for the planning area.