Scenario Manager
Analytical Cornerstone cost benchmarking
Table of Contents
Scenario Manager
The Scenario Manager allows you to adjust Fastmarkets RISI data to evaluate how those changes would affect a mill’s competitiveness within a market. For example, you can model the impact of changing exchange rates on a specific mill or on all mills within a region.
Cornerstone offers two types of scenario adjustments:
1. Market Adjustments
Market adjustments apply the selected change to all mills affected by the scenario. This is useful when you want to apply a universal cost or price change across a group of mills. The scope of a market adjustment depends on the type of adjustment.
2. Mill Adjustments
Mill adjustments apply only to the single selected mill, allowing you to isolate and evaluate how a mill-specific change impacts competitiveness.
Working with Scenarios
Scenarios allow users to analyze how adjustments affect a report. Because of this, most scenario interactions begin and end on a report screen.
The Scenario button appears on the top left-hand side of all reports that support scenarios. It is located directly below the mill or custom‑market navigation,
The Reline Baseline Data button appears on the top right-hand side of any report that supports Reline Baseline.
Reline Baseline Data vs. Scenarios
In Analytical Cornerstone, there are two ways to adjust Fastmarkets RISI data: Reline Baseline Data and Scenarios. While both methods allow you to modify data, they operate differently and serve distinct purposes.
| Category | Reline Baseline Data | Scenarios |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Permanent changes to the mill’s underlying baseline data. These updates replace the default RISI values used in all reports. | Temporary adjustments applied to mill‑level or market‑level data to test assumptions and analyze impact. Baseline data remains unchanged. |
| Purpose | To correct or customize core mill data when you have more accurate or mill‑specific information. | To compare original RISI data against adjusted data and evaluate the effect of specific changes. |
| When to use it | When data needs to be updated permanently for all future reporting. | When testing “what‑if” scenarios without altering the baseline. |
| Scope | Affects all reports that use the updated mill data. | Affects only the report or analysis using the scenario. |
| Examples | A mill pays $105/tonne for softwood chips instead of the $110/tonne shown. You reline the baseline so all reports use the correct value. | You want to see how a 10% rise in the euro vs. USD would impact the competitiveness of U.S. newsprint mills. You apply a scenario to test the effect. |
| Persistence | Changes remain in place until manually updated again. | Changes apply only within the scenario and can be turned on or off at any time. |
For detailed instructions on using Reline Baseline Data, please refer to the Reline Baseline Data section
Scenario Actions
Switching the Scenario toggle from OFF to ON displays the available scenario options: Quick Scenario, Advanced Scenario, and Saved Scenarios. The following actions are available in the scenario menu:
Quick Scenario
A Quick Scenario allows you to instantly see the impact of changes in Energy prices, Fiber prices, or Exchange Rates. Quick Scenarios can be applied either to the specific mill you are viewing or to the entire market currently displayed.
Using Quick Scenarios at the market level is especially useful when a price change would affect all mills within the same market. However, when a market includes mills from multiple countries or regions, applying the same change may not be meaningful, since price increases or decreases do not necessarily occur simultaneously across different locations.
For detailed instructions on using Quick Scenarios, please refer to the Quick Scenario section further down.
Advanced Scenario
The Advanced Scenario provides a more detailed and refined way to analyze how specific adjustments impact a mill—either within its market or as a standalone mill. It offers a wider range of adjustment options than Quick Scenario or Reline Baseline Data, allowing you to model both Market Adjustments (applied to all affected mills) and Mill Adjustments (applied only to a selected mill).
For detailed instructions on using Advanced Scenarios, please refer to the Advanced Scenario section further down.
Saved Scenarios
Selecting Apply Saved Scenario opens a pop‑over window. Inside this pop‑over, a dropdown list displays all of your saved scenarios.
To review the adjustments included in a scenario, click Show Details.
When you are ready to use it, click Apply Scenario to activate the selected scenario.
Scenario Persistence
Once applied to a report, a scenario remains active until:
- you select Exit Scenario from the Scenario Actions menu,
- you click the Turn Off button, or
- you log out of Analytical Cornerstone.
If you simply close your browser window without logging out, Analytical Cornerstone will automatically log you in when you return—and your scenario will still be active.