Inventory Planning > Inventory Optimization > Setup > IO Batch Policy Maintenance

IO Batch Policy Maintenance

You use this program to maintain policies for a selection set (batch) of stock items.

IO Batch Policy Maintenance

The equivalent program for maintaining policies for individual stock items is the IO Policies program.

Inventory optimization requires a number of parameters to be able to model and calculate min/max stock levels over time for use in the Requirements Calculation and in modelling. These parameters are defined in policies which are linked to stock items.

Policies contain important features of the stock holding strategy for an item, including Target Service Levels and Planned Order Frequency.

Toolbar and menu

Field Description
Parameters Select this to use the IO Selections program to indicate the selection set for which you want to maintain policies.
Start Processing

Select this to process the Function you selected for the selection set.

Note that if you selected to Delete a policy for a selection set, then the policy is deleted without warning.

When processing is complete, you are prompted to process another selection set.

When you select this function before selecting the Parameters function, the IO Selections program is loaded, enabling you to indicate the selection set to which you want to apply the selected Function.

Function  
Add Select this to add a policy for a selection set.
Change Select this to maintain a policy for a selection set.
Delete Select this to delete a policy for a selection set.
[Note]

When you select Start Processing, the policy for the selection set is deleted without warning.

Policy Maintenance

Field Description
General  
Effective date This is the 'go-live' date of the policy, but can be changed by selecting the Set date to start of period option.

If there is more than one policy active within a period for the calendar selected, the first policy within the period is applied.

For example:

Assume a period starts on 10/10/2012 and ends on 31/10/2012.

Two policies exist for this period. The effective date for one policy is 10/10/2012 and for the other it is 20/10/2012.

Modelling will apply the policy effective 1010/2012 (i.e. the first policy) and apply that policy's information for the period.

Delete other policies in period Select this to allow other policies for the stock item within the selected period to be deleted.
Set date to start of period Select this to override the Effective date with the start date of the period according to the forecast calendar.

For example:

The policy's Effective date is set to 03/08/2012.

The period dates on the forecast calendar are from 01/08/2102 to 31/08/2012.

If you select this option, then the policy will come into effect on 01/08/2012.

Reference Optionally enter a reference.
Target service level

Indicate the target service level you want to achieve with this policy. This is the percentage of demand you want to satisfy over time, period by period.

If the policy is Risk based, then this percentage is used to calculate the number of days stock cover you require to achieve the target service level.

If the policy is Fixed, then the target service level is used for historical comparison only.

[Warning]

Great care must be taken when setting the target service level.

The higher the target service level, the higher the recommended inventory on-hand, and therefore, the greater the risk to your company when customers do not buy the product as expected.

It is recommended that you initially enter your current service level (rather than your intended service level) and review the effects in Requirements Planning.

You should review and adjust the target service level on an ongoing basis according to the internal and external factors and constraints affecting your business at any specific point in time.

Service level measure This is the measure used to calculate whether the target service level was met. It is based on the Sales Order Performance table.

You can indicate which measure to use.

Line fill rate This is the default selection and compares your target service level to your actual achieved service level.

This is the Quantity Invoiced as a percentage of the Quantity Ordered and is calculated as:

Line fill rate = Quantity Invoiced / Quantity Ordered * 100 for the order line.

Line on time in full

Order line delivered in full on or before the Line Due Date (customer request date).

This is calculated as:

Line on time in full = Lines in full / (Order lines + Number of lost sales) * 100.

An order line in full is when the quantity shipped is not less than the quantity ordered and the last line ship date is not later than the customer request date.

Line on time

Order line delivered on or before the Line Due Date (customer request date). This may or may not be a full delivery.

This is calculated as:

Line on time = Lines on time / (Order lines + No lost sales) * 100.

An order line on time is when a quantity has been shipped on or before the customer request date. It is not necessarily complete by the request date.

Order fill rate

This is the total Quantity Delivered (or Invoiced) as a percentage of the total Quantity Ordered for all of the stocked merchandise lines within a single Sales Order.

This is calculated as:

Order fill rate = Value shipped / (Value ordered + Value of lost sales) * 100.

The Order fill rate is always calculated using the sales value.

Order on time in full

All lines on the order are delivered on or before the line Due Date (Customer Request Date) and each line is delivered in full.

This is calculated as:

Orders on time in full = Orders in full / (No Orders + No lost sales) * 100.

An order is seen as on time in full when all the order lines included in the review have been shipped in full on or before the customer request date.
Order on time

All lines on the order are delivered on or before the line Due Date (Customer Request Date).

This is calculated as:

Orders on time = Order on time / (Number of orders + Number of lost sales) * 100.

An order on time is an order where all the order lines included in the review have at least partial shipments made on or before each customer request date.

Order based measures only take into account the order lines which are included in the review based on the selections made.

For example, if you have an order with 3 stocked merchandise lines:

A100, B100 and X999. If your selection is only for A100 and B100, then the third line for X999 is not included in any of the measures.

Maximum quantity cap Enter the maximum quantity to be determined within the policy.

This is the maximum quantity that can be held in stock whilst the policy is effective.

This is used in all policy types.

This is the ceiling placed on the Maximum Quantity when the suggested Maximum Quantity exceeds the ceiling.

If this is zero, then the maximum quantity defined against the warehouse for the stock code is used (Inventory Warehouse Maintenance for Stock Code).

The maximum can be a function of warehouse space. For example, if the warehouse can only accommodate 300 items and 500 items are ordered, where would you store the extra 200?
Planned order frequency Enter how often you plan to order an item.

This is the number of days between each purchase order raised to satisfy demand.

Policy type A policy can be either Fixed (in quantity or the number of days of cover of future demand) or Risk based, where the amount of stock is a function of the service level desired to meet future demand.
Fixed Select this if you want a fixed quantity or fixed number of days cover for the stock item.

This is useful when you are not sure of the demand, but you need to keep a certain number of the item in stock.

Fixed policies can be used for new products, since these items do not have any demand history.

Risk This type of policy determines the characteristics of the item according to the required service level, together with either the capability to forecast it or what its historic patterns of demand have been.
Fixed policy settings

This section enables you to indicate the Fixed Safety Stock, in Quantity or in Days, for Fixed policy types.

For risk based policies, the days cover is calculated based on the target service level and the algorithm used.

Policy base The fixed minimum stock can be indicated in terms of quantity or days.
Days Select this to indicate the days of minimum stock cover required for this item.
Quantity Select this to indicate a specific number of items to keep in stock as minimum stock.
Minimum quantity If the Quantity policy base is selected, then enter the minimum number of items to be kept in stock.

This minimum quantity is absolute and is used as the minimum level for the duration of the policy.

Minimum days cover For a Fixed policy, if the Days policy base is selected, then enter the minimum number of days of cover required. This is converted to a quantity based on the forecast demand for the effective period.

The system uses the forecast for the item in the future and works out how many days of cover this represents in quantities into every forecast period within the policy horizon.

Risk policy settings These options are only enabled for Risk based policies.
Distribution algorithm For a risk based policy you can choose either Poisson or Normal distribution as the algorithm to calculate the days cover required to meet the target service level.

The days cover is calculated based on the target service level and the algorithm selected.

Normal distribution Select this if the product has a fairly regular demand and is forecast regularly.
Poisson quantity Select this to use a Poisson probability distribution to calculate service level based on the quantity of demand into the future, or the historic quantity in the past.
Poisson hits Select this to use the Poisson distribution, but change the demand into demand occurrences (hits).

This a more reliable method for lower or intermittent demand items of providing stock cover.

Minimum cap in days Enter the amount you want to cap the minimum stock level at.

The entry made here is set and saved against each stock code supplied by the selection set.

When using a risk based policy the minimum number of days cover may require a ceiling to prevent overstocking. This is especially true if your data contains a lot of noise. In this case, the calculation may indicate that you need a minimum of 90 days cover, but you may actually only have warehouse space for 30 days minimum cover.

If the calculated minimum days cover exceeds the days entered here, then the minimum cap in days entered here is used instead.

Lead time variance Enter the amount you expect the lead time to vary from that promised by the supplier.

This amount is used to buffer the item's lead time, providing the lead time against the stock master is greater than zero. (i.e. the system will provide additional stock holding to cover the variance within the lead time).

It is applied as a percentage of the SKU's lead time as part of the days cover calculated by the algorithm.

For example:

The lead time against the stock item in the item master record is 50 days. The Lead time variance is 25 days.

The cover is increased by 50% (i.e. 25/50 *100).

If the Lead time variance is zero then there is no buffering.

Also, if the lead time against the item's master record is zero, then the lead time variance entered here is meaningless.

Notes and warnings

eSignature considerations

Electronic Signatures provide security access, transaction logging and event triggering. This enables you to increase control over your system changes.

Access to the following eSignature transactions within this program can be restricted at Operator, Group, Role or Company level. You configure this using the eSignature Setup program.

eSignature Transaction Description
IO Batch add policies

Controls access to the Add function of the IO Batch Policy Maintenance program.

IO Batch change policies

Controls access to the Change function in the IO Batch Policy Maintenance program.

IO Batch delete policies

Controls access to the Delete function of the IO Batch Policy Maintenance program.

Hints and tips

  • Amendment journals are created for changes to selection sets when the option: Amendment journals required - Policy settings is enabled (Inventory Optimization - General Setup). These can be printed using the IO Policy Amendment Journal program.

Inserting Application Help

You would typically follow this procedure to display help for the current program in a customized pane that can be pinned to the program window.

Information includes step-by-step instructions for the various functions available within the program, including a brief overview of what the program does, what setup options are required and how to personalize the program.

  1. Open the program for which you want to insert application help into a customized pane.

    This functionality is only available for a program that has panes.

  2. Right-click any form field.

    You can also click the triangle menu icon that appears in the title area of a pane.

  3. Select Insert Application Help from the context-sensitive menu.

    The application help appears in a pane within your program. You can reposition the pane using the docking stickers or pin it to the program window.

Removing the Application Help pane

If you no longer want to display application help in a pane for your current program, you can simply remove it.

  1. Select the Close icon in the right-hand corner of the application help pane.

  2. Confirm that you want to delete the pane.