The Families and Groupings module provides a mechanism for you to classify and group together inventory items in order to analyze and forecast at higher levels. This is achieved by creating collections (i.e. a group or family of stock codes or warehouses that are viewed and forecast as a whole).
Families and Groupings generates suggested forecasts at both stock code and group level (i.e. groups of stock codes) whereas Inventory Forecasting generates suggested forecasts at a stock code level.
You typically use Families and Groupings in an environment where forecasting individual stock items is unmanageable.
Families and Groupings is essential to an organization in a demand-driven environment and may serve as in input to MRP.
There is no pre-determined structure to the Families and Groupings module - you create the hierarchies that suit your products and business processes.
This procedure outlines the steps you should follow to configure Inventory Families and Groupings.
Inventory Forecasting Setup
The installation options for Inventory Forecasting and Families and Groupings are common to both modules. Therefore, if you are using Inventory Forecasting, you will already have defined these options. These installation options affect Inventory Forecasting at SKU level, while in Families and Groupings, they affect forecasting at both the SKU level and at collection level (groups of SKUs).
Use the Inventory Optimization - General Setup, Inventory Optimization - Forecast Algorithms Setup and Inventory Optimization Modeling Setup programs to define the setup options you require for Families and Groupings.
Navigate to the Options Maintenance program and define the forecasting options you require.
The settings defined within this program are also applied in Families and Groupings against any SKU (stock keeping unit) in any collection.
If you are using Inventory Forecasting, you will already have defined these options, but you may want to review your selections.
Navigate to the Forecast Calendars program to configure the calendars to use for your forecasting.
If you are using Inventory Forecasting, you will already have defined these calendars, but you may want to review them.
Use the Initial History Creation program to take on the sales history that is required for the Inventory Optimization module to function effectively.
If you are using Inventory Forecasting, you will already have run this program. You can, however, run this program multiple times using restored or older copies of your inventory movements file to build up the history.
Optionally use the Import Demand History program to import demand history if required.
Navigate to the IO Collection Descriptors program and define the descriptors required for your collections.
Navigate to the Families and Groupings program to define the collection structure of the hierarchy required in Families and Groupings.
Highlight the All Collections node in the Collection Structure treeview. Select the Add option from the Edit menu and add the collections you require. Highlight each collection you defined and add sub-collections or SKUs (stock keeping units) as required.
You should spend some time planning this before continuing as the structure of the hierarchy is the main variable that affects Families and Grouping. Defining your hierarchy may take a few hours to implement or may take weeks, depending on the size and complexity of your firm.
Data
The SKUs and their history as used and applied in Inventory Forecasting are entirely compatible with Families and Groupings (i.e. you use the same stock codes in Inventory Forecasting and in Families and Groupings).
Provided the data exists, no changes are required against your SKUs for the system to suggest forecasts in Families and Groupings, either on an individual basis or on a group or collection level.
Any adjustments made to the history of stock items using the Demand History Maintenance program has an impact in Families and Groupings.
To accurately forecast at collection level, you need to aggregate the sales history for SKUs within your collections.
From the Families and Groupings program, highlight a collection and select the Aggregate Sales History option from the Edit menu.
You can simultaneously aggregate all collections by highlighting the All Collections node in the Collection Structure treeview and then select the Aggregate Sales History option. Note that this can take a while depending on the number of stock codes within collections and the number of collections on file.
Select the option Update sales history for all SKUs in selected structure to update the sales history against each stock item in the selected collection with the sales transactions that occurred since the last aggregation.
Families and Groupings integrates with the following modules:
Inventory Forecasting
Sales Orders
Inventory
Requirements Planning
Adjustments made in the Inventory Forecasting module, forecasts from the Inventory Forecasting module and options defined in the Options Maintenance program for stock items are displayed and applied in Families and Groupings.