Scenario Creation and Forecast Configuration

Creation date: 2/25/2026 6:44 AM    Updated: 3/25/2026 4:49 AM   scenario configuration

What is a Scenario?

A Scenario works like an annotation on top of your Movement Set to define the supply and demand, the processes and the costs of the network.

A Scenario has three components.
  1. The Forecast: Where the supply and demand are defined, corresponding to the first and the final links of the supply chain.
  2. The Operations: Where we define the network capabilities that allow it to connect the supply and demand.
  3. The Costs: Where facility, process and transport costs can be specified for analysis as well as optimisation.
 A fully configured Scenario can be explored and optimised. You can define multiple Scenarios for the same Movement Set, as long as you give them distinct names. You can also optimise the same Scenario multiple times with different constraints.

Scenario Creation

To create a Scenario from the Movements page, navigate to the Movement Set you want to work with and click on the Define Scenario button in the lower right corner of the Scenario card. 

You will be prompted to name your Scenario. Name your Scenario and click on the Create Forecast button. 

The newly created Scenario will appear in the Scenarios list, with prompts to configure each of its components. 

Forecast Configuration

Creating the Forecast is the first step to configure a Scenario. The Forecast is where we define the supply and demand in a Movement Set. 

The Forecast has two parts, the Supply corresponding to the first link in the supply chain, and the Demand corresponding to the final link.

For example, consider the supply chain below.



In this example, the supply chain starts at Suppliers, who supply Materials. This Location Type and Flow Type define the Supply of the network. 
On the other hand, our example chain ends at the Retailers and Treated Goods Retailers who demand Packaged Products and Treated Products, respectively.  These two Location Types and Flow Types define Demand.



First we configure the Supply section using the Flow Type and Location Type panels to the left of the interface. Select Materials as the Supply Flow Type, and Supplier as the Supply Location Type. As we select these options, the list of individual Suppliers and the Materials they output appear in the central panel for you to inspect, and even modify.

Next we configure the Demand section by selecting Retailer and Treated Goods Retailer as the Demand Location Types, and Packaged Products and Treated Products for the Demand Flow Types.

Intermediate links in this supply chain such as Factories and Distribution Centres are not part of the Forecast. Instead they are configured later in the Optimisations page. 

When your Forecast is complete, scroll to the bottom to inspect the total demand and supply. It's usually a good idea for your Forecast to be reasonably balanced. To finish click on the Save button. 

This will complete the Forecast configuration in your newly created Scenario, and the next step will be configuring the Operations.