What does the Demand Forecast Chart show me?

The Demand Forecast Chart provides a high-level summary of the outputs of the forecast. Several metrics are shown on this chart to provide context and drivers for the forecast. The level of aggregation for the chart is based on the selection in the View box. The above example is set to “Daily” which is why each bar is labelled with a date.

Metrics

• Bkd Dmd – This shows demand (individual, group, and flex) that is already “on the books.” It shows what portion of the total forecast has already been purchased by customers. The closer to the departure date, this bar will naturally take up a larger percentage of the total forecast.
• Fcst Dmd – This shows remaining demand that is forecasted by the system (confirm if this is just advanced or also flex). This is the primary output of the system. The Realised and Forecasted demand can be added together to intuit the forecasted total demand. The closer to the departure date, this bar will naturally take up a smaller percentage of the total forecast.
• Fcst Override – This shows the amount of remaining demand that is not being forecasted by the system, but rather, is an output of a user override. This will help provide an indication to the user the relative amount of remaining demand that is being forecasted by the system and what is based on user inputs.
• Allocation – This tracks the total allocation available for the record. This will give the user an indication of how close to the allocation limit the forecasted demand is projected to approach. Demand may exceed allocations for certain segments which could demonstrate: a misalignment in pricing strategy for that segment, allocations being reserved for the flex forecast, coaches being taken out of service, etc.
• TY Yield  – This line shows this year yield. For dates in the future, this value is calculated both using realised revenue and projected remaining revenue using the current pricing position for each journey.
• LY Yield – The Last Year Yield line shows the final yield for advanced purchases in the previous year.
• Special Events  – At the bottom of the chart, the impact of special events for each record is represented by a green or red bubble. Green means that demand is expected to increase due to a special event, and red indicates a decrease.

The chart does not have to be viewed with all the metrics, however. The user may click the labels for the bars / lines in the legend to toggle the visibility of the associated graphs. It allows the user to decide which metrics are most useful for their analysis.

The user can also hover over data points to pull up a context menu that shows the exact values for each point that is plotted on the chart.

The user can click the bars in the chart to navigate to lower level of detail. For instance, if the view is at the weekly level, a user can click the bar associated with a particular week, and that week will be plotted at the daily level of detail. Clicking on the bar associated with a particular day will filter the forecast screen to all the trains for that day. This allow the user to quickly dig into lower levels of detail when investigating unexpected performance. As the user goes through different levels of aggregation, the filter menu will update with the level the user is currently viewing. The user can also use this dropdown to quickly navigate between aggregation levels. The user can view the drilldown steps taken at the top of the screen. Clicking the links to higher levels of detail will restore previous views.