Production Planning and Forecasting keypad Good sales and operations planning can derive a plan on which the system's scheduling tools can be efficiently unleashed. Having the right elements in the right place at the right time is the objective. Production plan schedules can substitute for, or supplement, sales order demand. Planning can be based on a forecast and may use a planning alias, permitting product family planning. Sales forecasts, using daily, weekly or monthly time buckets, can be maintained and used to automatically generate a production plan. Product forecasts can be generated from customer forecasts, or on a product group basis. "Inactive" or secondary plans can be maintained for what-if analysis. Production plan items are optionally auto-updated on sales dispatch of a product group member. Forecasts can be imported from and exported to spreadsheet programs. A master production schedule (MPS) can be reviewed and reported. 015 forecast