As a retail practitioner, I can appreciate the process improvements that retailers and their manufacturing partners realize by implementing store-level DRP systems. Retailers benefit because they have to create only one robust forecast: the forecast for consumer sales. They are relieved of task of creating robust distribution center (DC) shipment forecasts, because the DRP system automatically calculates the DC shipments through its time-phasing calculations. Automation of the DC shipment forecast essentially eliminates the function of DC forecaster. This saving either reduces operating costs, or is invested in hiring merchandise planners who are accountable for assortment planning and inventory optimization. The most important outputs of a DRP system are the forecast of order to suppliers. Retailers commonly refer to these as order forecasts; manufacturer call these time-phased forecasts “supplier schedules” and manufacturers have been providing them to their upstream trading partners for decades