The article "How do we know when a new item has been added to DemandCaster?" defines the method DemandCaster uses to identify if a new item has been uploaded from the ERP.

At times a new item needs to be planned even though it has not been formally released. Often this is done to drive materials or plan capacity. The article Creating a temporary item for planning describes the steps necessary to create a temporary item so that it can be planned. Once the new item is released to the ERP and loaded into DemandCaster it may be linked to the temporary item following Step 1 above.

Once a new item has been added, the user should review to assure the following critical supply related parameters are correct:

• Lead Time: If there is no lead time the user may enter a lead time in the options interface of the item or add it to the ERP to update with the next upload. In short, a lead time of 0 means the item is immediately available thus no suggested order can be made. See the article How to change the lead time of one or many items? to learn how to change a lead time.
• Safety Stock: A brand new item will not have a calculated safety stock since there is no history to calculate a standard deviation or days on hand value. The user may either enter a safety stock value to serve as an initial trigger until history starts being built or may link to use the old items history.
• Classification: A brand new item will have a classification of "D" meaning that it has no historical demand. If the safety stock service level is tied to the classification, you may want to assign a specific classification to the new item.
• Stock versus Non-Stock: If the item is set to non-stock (order), replenishment orders are triggered only when actual demand is generated against them. Non-stock items have an order point of 0. Stocked items (stock) will have an order point of forecast + safety stock. The user may enter the values for the forecast by following the steps in the article Editing Forecasts (Total Demand) in Requirement Planning and/or safety stock as required or use linking to drive a forecast for the new item.
• Consumption Type: The consumption type is the model that is used to consume the forecast for requirement planning. You can read about the different options in the Consumption Type article.
• Requirement Planning and Ordering Settings: Review any final requirements such as Periodic Order Quantity, Periodic Order Grouping, and Order Horizon. An explanation is provided in the article Requirement Planning Settings.

There are three primary methods available in DemandCaster depending on the modules enabled and the nature of the item being planned:

1. Linking: This method links the new item to a similar old item to drive the forecast. There is also a mass update option described in the article How to apply a mass supercession to many items at once (linking new items to old items)
2. Uploading User Defined Forecasts: See the article Manually Uploading User-Defined Forecasts in Requirement Planning.
3. Manual Entry: See the article Editing Forecasts (Total Demand) in Requirement Planning. A forecast may be edited even when there is no base forecast and the forecast values are 0.