How to create NPI plan?

Click on Create NPI from the list screen. This will take you to the page where you can create a new NPI plan. Below is the illustration.

You have to fill in all the mandatory fields to create a successful NPI plan.

NPI Plan name: The NPI plan must have a unique, user-provided name, as it is a required field. The name can contain a maximum of 40 characters. If you provide a duplicate name for the NPI plan, the application will display a warning message: "Plan with this name already exists. Please provide a different name."

NPI Plan Description: You can enter free text for the NPI plan description, though it is not a mandatory field. The description can be up to 250 characters in length.

Select an Item for the NPI plan: You can select only one product from the dropdown, which displays values in the format of the Product ID: Product Description (e.g., 17195: Finishing Combo T-Outliner). The dropdown shows all available products, and you can search for a specific product by typing the first few characters of either the Product ID or Product Description.

Note: The current capability allows you to create an NPI Plan at the product level (i.e., Product | Customer-All| Location-All| Source-All level)

Select the NPI forecast period: This defines the period during which the application should generate the NPI forecast, typically with start and end dates set in future periods.

What is a like product to create an NPI forecast? 

Select like products for NPI forecast: You can select one or more like products from the dropdown, which displays values in the format of the Product ID: Product Description (e.g., 17195: Finishing Combo T-Outliner). The dropdown includes all available products, and you can search by typing the first few characters of either the Product ID or Product Description. However, the selection is limited to a maximum of five like products. Once five products are selected, the application will prevent additional selections until the planner unselects one or more products to choose others.

Select like product input measures: You can select one or measure as an input for the NPI forecast. Available input time series include loaded measures, transaction measures, planning time series, and statistical forecasts. The list of input measures is configuration-driven.

What are the product weights of the like products?

Assign weights to the like products: Once a like (reference) product is selected, the application allows the user to select product weights for the respective products. If only one like product is selected, the product weight defaults to 100%, and the user cannot edit the weight for that product. However, the application enables users to adjust the weights if multiple products are selected. Users can only enter whole numbers in the text boxes, as decimals are prohibited. The application automatically appends a percentage symbol (%) after each number. The sum of the weights across all selected products must equal 100%. If the user fails to provide weights or inputs incorrect weights (i.e., the sum is less than or greater than 100%), the application will display the message: "Sum of product weights should be equal to 100%.

Start from and end at: When forecasting the new product, you can determine the time series data required for each like product. Select a start date and an end date, stipulating that the end date must be greater than the start date. Additionally, you can choose different start and end dates for each reference product. 

View trend(Sparkline): Based on the input measure selected by the planner, the application displays the trend for each reference product in a sparkline graph, indicating the trend within the specified "Start from" and "End at" dates. When the user hovers over the graph, the application reveals the time series name, the period (formatted as MMM YYYY), and the corresponding value for that period (rounded to the nearest whole number, without decimals). If there are no data points for the selected input measure and period range, the application will display a "No data found" message on the sparkline.

What is the Ramup curve?

The New Product Introduction (NPI) model curve is the graphical representation or conceptual framework that illustrates the various stages and critical activities of bringing a new product to market. The curve typically charts the progress of a product from its initial conception through development, testing, launch, and eventual market maturity.

The NPI ramp-up curve can be selected in two ways.

1. Select from other products: This option allows you to choose the NPI ramp curve from any existing product. To do this, you should select the following details under this option.

i. Select product: This dropdown menu lists all the available products. You can select only one product at a time.

ii. Estimated sales during the ramp-up period: You can give a high-level business volume estimate for the new product. It represents the units the sales team estimated to sell within the period (probably a one-year time frame). This field allows only numerical values, and numbers are 1000s separated.

iii. Ramp-up start and end periods: The Ramp-up start and end periods should be within the NPI Forecast horizon period. You have to provide proper input to generate a ramp-up curve. The ramp-up curve generates the Final NPI Plan, considering the Base NPI Plan as input.

Note: ‘End date’ can’t be before the start month.

2. Select from the standard curve: 

i. Select ramp-up curve:  You can select the standard NPI curve while generating the final NPI forecast. The application supports standard ramp-up curves like S-curve and Gompertz. You can choose only one curve at a time. You have to provide proper input to generate a ramp-up curve. The ramp-up curve generates the Final NPI Plan, considering the Base NPI Plan as input.

ii. Business volume estimate: You can give a high-level business volume estimate for the new product. It represents the units the sales team estimated to sell within the period (probably one year). This field allows only numerical values, and numbers are 1000s separated. 

iii. Ramp-up start and end periods: The Ramp-up start and end periods should be within the NPI Forecast horizon period. You must provide proper input to generate a ramp-up curve, which generates the Final NPI Plan, considering the Base NPI Plan as input.

Note: ‘End date’ can’t be before the start month.

3. None: You can select the none option if you don't want to choose any ramp-up curve.

How does the Rampup period work?

While creating an NPI plan, you can adjust the parameters K(Growth starts) and A(Growth rate) between 0.5 and 2.

• k is a parameter that controls the shape of the curve; k>0. The larger the value, the later it starts to grow fast, and the steeper (larger the slope) the growth.

• a is a parameter that controls the shape of the curve; a>0, the lower the value, the sooner to start fast growth, the less steep fast growth.

You can adjust k and values by dragging the pointer between 0.5 and 2.

• NPIs expected market share:  You can adjust the Min and Max share values between 1% and 100%.

Cannibalization impact

Cannibalization impact is the reduction in the sales of a company's products as a consequence of introducing another similar product.

While creating an NPI Plan, you can also decide if the new product launch will impact existing product sales. If yes, choose the products whose sales are impacted by the NPI.

While choosing the products, you have to provide the following details.

1. Estimated impact (%):  

   1. The percentage reduction of growth. 

   2. The percentage impact applies to the Input time series selected. 

   3. If the input time series is “Statistical forecast units,” then the percentage impact is on the Statistical forecast units.

   4. The estimated impact (%) per product should not exceed 100%

2. Impact starts from

   1. Introducing a new product might not impact the existing product’s sales on day one. Hence, we provide a flexible option to decide when the impact will start.

   2. The impact start date should be the “future period.”

3. Impact end on: This is the day on which the new product introduction impact ends on the existing products.

4. View trend: The trend should be displayed based on the “input measure” selected.

Once all the above details are provided, you can Save the NPI Plan.