Oracle Retail Assortment Planning

Transcription

1 Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Release Notes Release E April 2011 Assortment plans are used to establish the breadth and depth of the product offering, for store clusters, for a given period. Analysis of past performance such as color effectiveness, styling visualization, in-store placement, and geographic selling are key inputs into building a new assortment. In creating the new assortment, the user has several options to select the products. One option may be to work with a designer to define the product and its attributes. Another option may be to select goods directly from a supplier s offering. Yet another option may be to repeat a previous product or carry forward an existing product. With any of these options, the ultimate decision must be aligned with the high-level financial targets and key item strategies that are already in place. The key to successful assortment planning is flexibility. The business needs drives the process of planning and helps an organization to realize financial profitability. For a fashion retailer, this flexibility may be utilized to plan assortments at the style and style/color level while managing quantities relevant to minimum pre-pack size or providing visibility to private label design to effectively manage the product development lifecycle. Assortment planning processes vary widely among retailers, but the basic concept is to work at the level of a class or department for a specific buying period, grouped by store clusters. Oracle Retail Assortment Planning facilitates a flexible process of planning assortments for user-defined buying periods with multiple flows at a configurable level of the merchandise hierarchy. The ability to plan the size-level receipt quantities for each store brings significant benefits in downstream execution systems. This is further enhanced by the ability to arrive at optimized pre-pack quantities for buy quantities. Prepack Optimization can be used by Assortment Analysts to determine the optimized combination of prepack configurations to meet individual store-level requirements. While optimizing returns for the retailer, prepack optimization takes into account competing constraints such as presentation minimums, vendor specifications, and storage limitations. The principles driving prepack optimization are: Reducing supply chain handling costs Minimizing misallocation, resulting in lost sales at some stores (under-allocation) and markdowns at other stores (over-allocation) Striking a balance with the complexity due to multiple prepack configurations 1

2 Overview of the Fashion Planning Bundle The Fashion Planning Bundle is the integration of Item Planning (IP), Item Planning configured for Clearance Optimization Engine (IP-COE), Assortment Planning (AP), Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP), and Size Profile Optimization (SPO) as a full-suite planning solution for fashion retailers. Hardware and Software Requirements See the Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Installation Guide for information about the following: Hardware and software requirements Oracle Retail application software compatibility information Note: After the x release, MKS Toolkit will no longer be supported as a requirement for operating the RPAS Server on all versions of Windows operating systems. Use of Cygwin is in development as a replacement. Upgrade Note Due to the introduction of new hierarchies in , Assortment Planning is not upgradeable from previous versions to If you are upgrading from a version prior to , you must perform a full installation of Assortment Planning in order to accommodate these changes. See the Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Installation Guide for full installation instructions. For more information about the hierarchy changes, see the Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Implementation Guide. Functional Enhancements AP includes the following functional enhancements. Optimized Prepacks AP now has an additional module that can be used for determining optimized prepack configurations. It includes a solver that is specialized for prepack optimization. Some of the salient features of the prepack module are as follows: Computes optimized prepack configurations, depending on the number of prepacks the retailer may be able to buy. These prepack configurations are optimized for each DC delivery or Purchase Order, while minimizing misallocation and handling costs. Suggests prepack configurations based on planned store receipts, historical sales, or Bulk Purchase Orders. Recommends the optimized number of prepack configurations to strike a balance with supply chain complexities. Takes into account pack-level constraints to ensure conformity to logistical and storage constraints. 2

3 Accounts for size-level constraints to enable user-specified distribution of sizes. Enables the specification of pre-defined prepacks to accommodate reuse of existing or vendor-specified prepack configurations or size-level constraints to enable user-specified distribution of sizes. Provides Assortment Analysts with the ability to alter parameters and perform what-if analysis. Offers the option to manually override the solver's recommendation by selecting a different set of prepacks if the analyst prefers. Specifies validity dates for the prepacks, based on the Purchase Orders with which they are associated. Enables prepack optimization at various levels, specifically for selected items or generically at higher levels of merchandise hierarchy, such as class or department. Prepack Optimization in Batch When prepack optimization is required for a large number of items or classes simultaneously, the Prepack Optimization module supports the creation of optimized prepacks in batch. Assortment Analysts can select items for optimization and define the criteria. The batch can be executed on demand to generate the desired prepack recommendations for the Analyst to review and approve. Prepack Administration The Prepack Optimization module has additional workbooks for the following administrative tasks: Fringe size management Creation of complex prepacks Integration Enhancement AP includes the following integration enhancement. Integration with SPO SPO integration with AP has been updated to include the following enhancements: AP is now capable of sending store receipt plans to SPO at the level of style-color/ store/week. These store receipts can then be used to determine optimized prepacks. AP now supports prepacks at the size-color level, as approved in SPO. See Oracle Retail Size Profile Optimization Implementation Guide for more details. 3

4 Performance Enhancements AP includes the following performance enhancements. Workbook Load Time Reduction In the Assortment Planning workbook, the workbook load time has been considerably reduced by altering the logic of calculating upper bounds on total weeks in a buying period using flow durations. Define Buying Periods Rule Modification Defining buying periods in AP (Administration workbook) was time consuming. This was because the creation of Buying Periods initiated a series of calculations that were considerably slower in the incremental mode, when compared to the batch mode. These rules have now been modified to execute in batch mode to improve the performance of creating and committing Buying Periods. Calculation Rule Modifications The AP batch scripts were time consuming. Calculation rules have been modified to make these scripts run faster. Known Issues The following sections contain issues that have been identified for the current release. Issue/Defect Integration of Size Profiles from SPO to AP Assortment Planning versions up to and including do not support multiple sub-size ranges for an item. Hence, integration of approved size profiles from SPO to AP is at the master-size profile level. Size profiles at the level of sub-size range are pre-aggregated to master-size range before being integrated in AP. The Optimize Store Allocations workbook, therefore, uses the size profiles pre-aggregated to master-size range. This affects retailers who have implemented both SPO and AP and intend to use the Optimize Store Allocations workbook to compute Initial Store Receipts by size or prepack. This does not affect the retailers who use a single size range for all stores. SPO now exports optimized prepacks to AP instead of the manually defined prepacks. The intersection of prepacks is now at style-color-size range level. Prepacks are no longer based at intersection of cluster and attribute-code. Complex Prepack Definition If any item is included in multiple prepacks, the Review Optimized Prepacks workbook does not recognize it accurately. In this case, when a new Review Optimized Prepacks workbook is built including this item for optimization at Level 01, it is expected to bring in all the related complex prepacks. However, the workbook brings in only one of the complex prepacks and the prepacks that the workbook did not bring cannot be optimized. Defect Number 4

5 Issue/Defect Prepack Validity Dates The Prepack Optimization module in SPO and in AP recommends optimized prepacks with specific validity dates, based on the DC Receipts that each prepack has been approved for. However, the Optimized Store Allocations workbook in AP does not use this information. AP treats all prepacks defined for each item to be available for the entire life of the item. This affects retailers who intend to procure different prepacks at different stages of an item's lifecycle. The current logic for optimized store allocations in AP could assign prepacks to store receipts when the prepack is not available. The resolution for this will require a change to special expression code and is not recommended to be customized. Item Selection for the Optimize to Prepack Planning Action Currently, the Optimize planning action for Levels 01, 02, 03, and 04 request the solver for new recommended prepacks for all the items that have the Optimize flag selected. When the optimization batch is executed, it requests optimized prepacks for all the items in the domain at that level that are flagged for optimization. For any of the items that are not flagged for optimization, the planning action removes all earlier results of optimized prepack as well as the user-entered data for optimization. In order to ensure that the optimized prepack recommendations are not erased, all items with valid results should be flagged for optimization. This could create redundant requests to the solver each time a user initiates the planning action from the application or invokes the batch process. The effect is a potential overload of the application and delay in completing the solver results. Until this is rectified in a future release, you will not be able to create multiple prepacks for a single item. The build domain functionality fails in the AP Windows installer. Due to an issue in the RPAS Configuration Tools, AP customers who want to add the Prepack Optimization module (using the prepack optimization plug-in licensed with Size Profile Optimization), to an existing AP domain version or later, will not be able to patch their domain. This issue is caused by the existence of two eptpackdef measures: one in AP and one in the Prepack Optimization module. To work around this issue, unregister the eptpackdef measure in the AP domain so that only one eptpackdef measure remains. Then run the patch installation. Defect Number Noteworthy Defect Fixes The following noteworthy defect fixes are included in AP Fixed Issue/Defect The Buy Plan was displaying an incomplete set of measures from the Assortment Creation property. This was due to a few missing rules that have now been incorporated. Defect Number

6 Related Documentation For more information, see the following documents in the Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Release documentation set: Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Implementation Guide Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Installation Guide Oracle Retail Assortment Planning User Guide for the RPAS Classic Client Oracle Retail Assortment Planning User Guide for the RPAS Fusion Client For more information on the Fashion Planning Bundle applications, see the following documents: Oracle Retail Item Planning documentation Oracle Retail Item Planning Configured for COE documentation Oracle Retail Clearance Optimization Engine documentation Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning documentation Oracle Retail Assortment Planning documentation Oracle Retail Size Profile Optimization documentation For more information about the RPAS Fusion Client, see the documents in the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server documentation set. For more information about RPAS and the ODI Enabled Integration, see the following documentation sets: Oracle Retail ODI Enabled Integration documentation Oracle Data Integrator documentation Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server documentation Previous Releases For additional information on previous Oracle Retail Assortment Planning release enhancements and additional information, refer to the release notes and documentation that accompany the previous release. Documentation Accessibility Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to all users, including users that are disabled. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at 6

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8 Oracle Retail Assortment Planning Release Notes, Release Copyright 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This software and related documentation are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are protected by intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted in your license agreement or allowed by law, you may not use, copy, reproduce, translate, broadcast, modify, license, transmit, distribute, exhibit, perform, publish, or display any part, in any form, or by any means. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of this software, unless required by law for interoperability, is prohibited. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing. 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Oracle Corporation and its affiliates will not be responsible for any loss, costs, or damages incurred due to your access to or use of third-party content, products, or services. Licensing Note: This media pack includes a Restricted Use license for Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server (RPAS) - Enterprise Engine to support Oracle Retail Assortment Planning only. Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Language Oracle Retail VAR Applications The following restrictions and provisions only apply to the programs referred to in this section and licensed to you. You acknowledge that the programs may contain third party software (VAR applications) licensed to Oracle. Depending upon your product and its version number, the VAR applications may include: (i) the MicroStrategy Components developed and licensed by MicroStrategy Services Corporation (MicroStrategy) of McLean, Virginia to Oracle and imbedded in the MicroStrategy for Oracle Retail Data Warehouse and MicroStrategy for Oracle Retail Planning & Optimization applications. (ii) the Wavelink component developed and licensed by Wavelink Corporation (Wavelink) of Kirkland, Washington, to Oracle and imbedded in Oracle Retail Mobile Store Inventory Management. (iii) the software component known as Access Via licensed by Access Via of Seattle, Washington, and imbedded in Oracle Retail Signs and Oracle Retail Labels and Tags. (iv) the software component known as Adobe Flex licensed by Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, California, and imbedded in Oracle Retail Promotion Planning & Optimization application. You acknowledge and confirm that Oracle grants you use of only the object code of the VAR Applications. Oracle will not deliver source code to the VAR Applications to you. Notwithstanding any other term or condition of the agreement and this ordering document, you shall not cause or permit alteration of any VAR Applications. For purposes of this section, "alteration" refers to all alterations, translations, upgrades, enhancements, customizations or modifications of all or any portion of the VAR Applications including all reconfigurations, reassembly or reverse assembly, re-engineering or reverse engineering and recompilations or reverse compilations of the VAR Applications or any derivatives of the VAR Applications. You acknowledge that it shall be a breach of the agreement to utilize the relationship, and/or confidential information of the VAR Applications for purposes of competitive discovery. The VAR Applications contain trade secrets of Oracle and Oracle's licensors and Customer shall not attempt, cause, or permit the alteration, decompilation, reverse engineering, disassembly or other reduction of the VAR Applications to a human perceivable form. Oracle reserves the right to replace, with functional equivalent software, any of the VAR Applications in future releases of the applicable program. 8