Specify Plan Stockpiles, Process Flows, Locations and Product/Brands

If the production and demand plan includes products that are handled in discrete units, movement flows and packing process flows can be used wherever bulk process flows are indicated in the user interface and activity steps.

For value chains that are large, the configuration can be done in parts and ordered, because this is the formatting applied in the Worksheet tab.

Stockpiles included in the plan must have the stockpile product specified. See Specify the Stockpile Product.

Security Note: You need the Allow Planning Maintenance security right in the Planning domain security rights group for this activity.

Activity Steps

  1. Open the Plan.
  2. Select the Configuration tab.
  3. Select the Supply Chain panel in the Solution Explorer.
  4. Expand the Supply Chain » Business Areas and the Supply Chain » Process Flows nodes.
  5. Drag a business area or process flow into the Locations / Process Flows field group.

    The business area should include a location with an incoming and outgoing process flow.

  6. Delete any locations and process flows not required in the plan, or check Hide On Worksheet (affects the Worksheet tab) or Hide On Data Entry (affects the Planned Product and Planned Demand tabs) for the locations or process flows that do not need to be viewed. At least one location, one incoming process flow and one outgoing process flow are required.

    Note: One of the locations must be a despatch location from which contracts are fulfilled, in order for the Planning module to identify contractual demands for planning purposes.

  7. To reorder the locations and process flows, right-click a location or process flow and select Move First, Move up, Move Down or Move Last as required.
  8. Include products or brands in the plan:

    Note: Locations and process flows are not automatically assigned a product or brand; therefore, at least one product or brand must be specified for each location and process flow in the plan.

    1. To assign a product or brand to a location or process flow:
      1. Select the Supply Chain panel in the Solution Explorer.
      2. Expand the Supply Chain » Material » Products or Supply Chain » Material » Brands node.
      3. Drag the product or brand onto the location or process flow in the Locations/ Process Flows table.

        Note: Dragging a product or brand to the Products/Brands column replaces the previously specified product or brand rather than adding it.

    2. To assign all products or brands within a category to a location or process flow:
      1. Select the Supply Chain panel in the Solution Explorer.
      2. Expand the Supply Chain » Material » Products or Supply Chain » Material » Brands node.
      3. Drag the product or brand category onto the location or process flow in the Locations/ Process Flows table.
    3. To copy the products and brands to another location or process flow:
      1. Right-click the source location or process flow in the Locations/ Process Flows table and select Copy Brands from the menu.
      2. Right-click the destination location or process flow and select Paste Brands from the menu.
    4. To copy the products and brands to all locations and process flows, right-click the location or process flow in the Locations/ Process Flows table and select Select As Default Brands from the menu.
  9. For each location, complete the following fields as required.
    • Is Fulfillment
    • Text Colour—Select from a palette of basic colours, preconfigured web colours and system (Windows) colours. In the palette of basic colours, right-click a colour in the bottom two rows to customise a colour with hue/saturation/luminosity or red/green/blue values.
  10. For each process flow, complete the following fields as required.
    • Text Colour
    • Destination Process Flow—Process flow to link the source and destination locations in the production and demand plan, if they are otherwise unconnected in the business area configuration. Transport routes are modelled with a combination of process flows (typically a loading and an unloading process flow). Therefore, the despatch loading process flow should have its unloading process flow set as its destination process flow.
    • Product Source—Product to be recorded as moved across the process flow for the production and demand plan. Select from:
      • FromStockpile—The product recorded is to be the one contained in the source stockpile. This option is appropriate for an outgoing process flow.
      • ToStockpile—The product to be recorded is the one contained in the destination stockpile. This option is appropriate for an incoming process flow.
      • Movement—The product recorded is the Movement Product defined for the process flow.
    • Transform Product—Destination product if it is different to the source product by being transformed in some manner.
    • Delay Period—Delay time, in days, from the source stockpile to the destination stockpile. Used to indicate the time between loading commencement and unloading completion for a transport route. Only applicable if the process flow has a destination process flow. On the Worksheet tab, if the quantity for a planning period is manually overridden for a process flow, the quantity for the destination process flow is updated for the planning period that is the Delay Period number of days later. Example: A plan includes a train loading process flow with a train unloading destination process flow. The delay period is 5 days. If 100 tonnes is entered for the loading process flow on the 2nd day of the month, the unloading process flow is updated to 100 tonnes for the 7th day of the month.
  11. Select a Colour for each product and brand in the Product table in the bottom-right panel if required. Default: The colour specified for the Product or Brand.
  12. Click Save.