We are implementing LS NAV for our distribution and retail business. So far, we plan not to migrate our historical sales data from our existing system (ODOO ERP) to the new one, LS NAV.
What is the good practice for using demand plan and automatic replenishment functions at the earlier stage of the system use? Do they migrate some of the historical data or do they use manual replenishment functions for a while till they get sales data for some period of time?
It depends on what you really need the historical data for and which version you are migrating to and what you come from.
You ask about the historical data in relationship with demand planning. The demand planning in NAV, doesn’t use you historical data. It uses the settings on the item (min. stock, reorder points etc.), and the current non-historical data (open orders etc.), not the historical data as such.
If that is your only purpose, then I don’t see why. When I look back at all my Navision implementations over the years, then it’s not been many were we have also migrated historical data. Maybe 1 out of 20 implementations. Especially not historical inventory data. Don’t think I have ever done that.
Migrating historical data (like posted invoices and their customer/item ledger entries), often take you much longer than anything other migration data. The reason is that you cannot import data directly into these tables. The data needs to be imported into a different (i.e. sales order) table, and then posted using NAV’s posting functions. Otherwise it would interfere negatively with your new entries. Or in your case not being in a state where the system actually could use them.
Most of the times, after I have estimated migration of historical data, then the client decides not to include historical data. Simply because they take too much time. Only master data (customer, vendors, items etc.), open orders and open ledger entries. Migrating inventory typically as if you did an inventory count.
Hi Erik, thank you for your comment.
Yes, as migrating historical data to the new system is not a good practice, we plan NOT to migrate our sales history.
My question is that re-order policy settings like minimum stock level, re-order point etc are dependent on our demand forecast for the specific item. As I can see the demand forecast methods used in Nav (moving average and exponential smoothing etc…) are base on sales history of certain period of time in order to pick the average sales and seasonal index for the items. So, how your customers manage this? Do they implement manual replenishment functions until they get sales history in the new system? How do they run demand forecast functions?
Hi Tselvelmaa,
I’m not really an MRP/demand planning expert. Only had a few clients with it, and not the last couple of releases.
I would always migrate all the re-order policy settings I can for each item, but often they mean something completely different, so getting them correct may often take some time.
Are you planning to use the Contana/AI based forecasting in NAV 2017/18? Or which version do you use?
Hi Eric,
Yeah, we are implementing LS NAV 2017 and planning to use automatic replenishment functions along with demand forecasting. It seems that automatic replenishment functions use forecasting via the built-in Cortana Intelligence. As I understand, there are 17 different algorithms for demand forecasting.
So, I was wondering whether there are good practices for using these intelligent forecasting functions when they don’t have sales data for longer period of time.
Thank you so much for your effort, Eric. If you get any practical comments from your clients, please advice us.