UNFI Insights Projected Orders dashboard

You can see what UNFI expects to order — and when — up to 8 weeks before the purchase order is placed, using the Projected Orders dashboard. Build these projections into your own production and inventory planning to improve fill rates and reduce shorts. This dashboard uses UNFI’s projected orders and projected deliveries data, calculated at the supplier, DC, and product level. From the side menu, select Analytics > Projected Orders to open it.

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Dashboard scope

The Projected Orders dashboard is available on the Conventional and Natural data sets.

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How projections are calculated

Before you act on a projection, know what’s built into it:

• Projections build to your supplier minimum requirements — brackets and order batch size — and honor any vendor layer or vendor pallet requirement.
• Projections don’t factor in shelf life. To reach a minimum, a projection can add more days of inventory than a product can realistically hold, so it may look larger than what UNFI actually orders. If you see that pattern, flag it to your assigned SRM so you can review the bracket together.
• Projections do factor in current conditions: inventory on hand, inventory on order, ETA of inbound purchase orders, and upcoming promotions.
• Projections only appear on future on-cycle order days. UNFI may still place off-cycle orders to protect fill rate for its customers, so treat a projection as the planned baseline, not a ceiling.
• Quantities show in selling units aligned to your purchasing configuration.
• Current open purchase orders aren’t included in projected deliveries.

Projections are most accurate within the first 6 weeks, since that’s typically how much lead time UNFI receives from customers on promotional activity. Use that window for firm planning, treat later weeks as directional, and let your SRM know when a projection doesn’t match your own outlook.

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Overview

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Projected Orders and Deliveries by Week

This chart shows your forward view of what UNFI plans to order and when it should arrive, broken out by week. Use the gap between the Projected Orders and Projected Deliveries bars to plan production and staging.

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Overview tiles

These tiles summarize your total projected order and delivery volume for the selected date range and filters:

• Total Projected Order Cases — cases UNFI expects to order over the horizon shown.
• Total Projected Order Value — the estimated dollar value of those projected orders.
• Total Projected Delivery Cases — cases expected to arrive at UNFI distribution centers.
• Total Projected Delivery Value — the estimated dollar value of those projected deliveries.

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Drivers

These tables show where projected volume is concentrated, so you can plan freight, allocation, and production priority.

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Projected Orders by Distribution Center

Ranks DCs by projected order volume, with the number of products carrying a projection, projected order count, quantity, and dollars for each DC. Select a row to filter the rest of the dashboard to that DC.

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Projected Orders by Product

Ranks products by projected order volume across all DCs, including UPC, product code, and the DCs where that product has projections. Select a row to filter the rest of the dashboard to that product.

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Projected Deliveries by Distribution Center

The same breakdown as Projected Orders by Distribution Center, on the delivery side, reflecting lead time and transit.

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Projected Deliveries by Product

The same breakdown as Projected Orders by Product, on the delivery side, reflecting lead time and transit.

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Details

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Projected Orders Detail

Line-level detail by projected order date, product code, UPC, DC, quantity, and dollars. Use this table to see exactly which orders roll up into the totals and driver tables above.

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Projected Deliveries Detail

The same line-level detail on the delivery side, by projected delivery date. Remember that current open purchase orders aren’t included here — this table reflects only what’s projected, not what’s already on order.

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Filtering and exporting data

Use the filters at the top of the dashboard to narrow the view by date range, DC, product, or supplier. Select a cell in any table to filter the rest of the dashboard to that value. To export a table, select the three-dot menu in the top right corner, then select Download data. For detailed descriptions of every column and filter used on this dashboard, see the UNFI Insights glossary. If you have any questions or experience issues, please reach out to UNFIinsights@unfi.com.