How to Understand the Brightwork Explorer File Formats

ByPrimary Researcher

Executive Summary

  • Brightwork Explorer uses straightforward files with simple file formats.
  • This article will cover the Brightwork Explorer files.

Introduction

The Brightwork Explorer uses two file formats. One is when you want to use the Brightwork Explorer forecast error and monetized forecast error functionality along with the MRP parameter calculator.

The Brightwork Explorer Forecast Error and MRP Parameter Calculator

This multi-tabbed Google Sheet file contains the formats you need to run this option. It can be downloaded at this link.

The Brightwork Explorer Forecast Error “Only”

This multi-tabbed Google Sheet file contains the formats you need to run this option. It can be downloaded at this link.

The only difference between the two files is that while the formats are the Forecast Error “Only” file has blank fields which are not used if the MRP and inventory parameter calculations are not desired to be used.

These two file formats must be shared with you, so the administrator for Brightwork Explorer must add you to the shared membership for each file on Google Sheets.

Monthly Bucket Only For Data

Something to know, the Brightwork Explorer will only accept the date format of MONTH/YEAR. The reason is that even if one produces a forecast weekly, it will not be used in the Brightwork Explorer for the following reasons:

  1. It makes little sense to feed a weekly forecast to a supply planning system.
  2. A weekly forecast error cannot be used for supply planning.
  3. A weekly forecast error is not useful for forecast measurement and forecast improvement.
  4. A weekly forecast error is not useful for setting MRP parameters.

For this reason, the Brightwork Explorer file format is in a monthly bucket.

Using the Spreadsheet to Populate Data for Upload to the Brightwork Explorer.

The Google Sheet should be populated with data in Google Sheets or downloaded to Excel, then populated with data. Once all of the data has been populated, then you must save each file as a .csv extension. This can be easily done by saving “as” and selecting .csv as the option. This must be done for each of the tabs — each tab corresponding or eventually becoming a .csv file. Then these files are uploaded to the Brightwork Explorer.