Question 1

What makes a Bowline forecast explainable?

Accepted Answer

Bowline pairs the forecast with the business drivers that moved it instead of presenting a score with no context. The dashboard shows the direction and relative contribution of signals such as promotions, weather, supplier delays, and regional demand, alongside confidence information so a planner can explain the recommendation to a buyer or operator.

Question 2

Which SKU and regional drivers are surfaced?

Accepted Answer

The current forecast view is organized around the SKU and region being planned, then surfaces the strongest available demand and supply signals for that slice. It is designed to answer “why did this number move here?” rather than hide all regions and products behind one aggregate forecast.

Question 3

How is the food-waste percentage normalized?

Accepted Answer

Bowline treats food waste as a seeded sustainability baseline expressed in kg per week, not as a live, automatically ingested percentage. The baseline gives a consistent planning reference while the scenario preview models the effect of changed unit assumptions separately; it should not be read as a measured real-time waste rate.

Question 4

How do packaging returns and return rate inform planning?

Accepted Answer

Packaging-return percentage and return-rate percentage are part of the seeded sustainability baseline. They provide context for operational trade-offs and help frame a scenario conversation, but the current app does not yet expose editable sustainability inputs or claim that these values are being refreshed from a connector on every forecast run.

Question 5

How is freight CO2 per unit represented?

Accepted Answer

The baseline records freight CO2 by lane so supply chain leads can see the transportation context behind a regional plan. The scenario preview then shows modeled CO2e lines using deterministic per-unit assumptions; those preview lines are useful for comparing what-if cases, not a substitute for a verified logistics emissions ledger.

Question 6

What do the ERP and POS connectors do?

Accepted Answer

Connectors are the boundary for bringing planning inputs such as sales, inventory, product, and fulfillment context into the workflow when those integrations are enabled. They are intended to reduce manual handoffs between the systems your team already uses and the forecast view, while keeping the explanation attached to the resulting planning output.

Question 7

What do the connectors explicitly not bypass?

Accepted Answer

A connector does not bypass your ERP, POS, permissions, data-quality checks, or operational approval process. Bowline should not be treated as proof that a source system is complete, and the current FAQ does not claim live ingestion or automatic reconciliation for every connector named in the product story.

Question 8

How do what-if assumptions move the waste and CO2e lines?

Accepted Answer

The scenario preview applies deterministic per-unit assumptions to the selected what-if so you can compare the modeled waste and CO2e direction alongside the forecast change. This is intentionally a preview of the trade-off: the separate sustainability baseline remains its own seeded reference, and the modeled lines should not be confused with live measured outcomes.

Question 9

How should a regional planner use the dashboard outputs?

Accepted Answer

Start with the forecast and its drivers, check the confidence context, then use the what-if view to pressure-test a promotion, supply constraint, or regional allocation decision. Treat the sustainability baseline and modeled waste/CO2e lines as decision support, record the assumption behind the choice, and validate the final plan with the source-system owners.