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Calendar Plans, Lead Times & Planning Horizon

How are these inputs used by the system?

Nextail uses three key time-related concepts to optimize stock management: Calendar Plans, Lead Times and Planning Horizon.

  • Calendar Plan is used to indicate to the system which days each store is going to be picked in the warehouse.
  • Lead Times are used to indicate to the system how long it will take for the stock to hit the shop floor from the moment the waybill is generated. 
  • Planning Horizon is the parameter that indicates how many days need to be covered with each replenishment cycle. It begins once the stock reaches the shop floor - In other words, once the Lead Time period is over. 

Let’s see it with an example and imagine Store A has the following characteristics: 

  • Calendar Plan: Picked on Wednesdays 
  • Lead time: 4 days
  • Planning Horizon: 14 days

This is how you should read the picture above: if the Replenishment Scenario was launched on Monday (9th), the system would be able to see that Store A doens’t get picked in the Warehouse till Wednesday (11th). As a consequence, the lead time would start on the 12th and last till Sunday 15th (4 days). The Planning Horizon would  therefore cover the period from the 16th till the 29th (14 days).

How would the system use this information? 

1º) The Forecast model would be used twice: 

  • When calculating the Stock Forecast: an estimation of how many units will be sold between the day the replenishment is launched (9th) until the end of the Lead time (15th).
  • When calculating the Demand Forecast: an estimation of how many units will be sold during the Planning Horizon (between the 16th and the 29th).

2º) Once both quantities are calculated, the system is able to determine how many units should be replenished:

☝️This is a simplistic approach as no other parameters are taken into account (thresholds, warehouse stock, visual rules, minimum displays, residual value…). However, it is useful to see how the Stock forecast will determine the final estimated units that the store will be holding by the end of the Lead Time and how this influences directly the units to replenish as the system will compare the demand forecast of the Planning Horizon with that Stock Projection to identify the gap and send units consequently in order to prevent Stockouts during the PH period.  

How can these inputs be configured?

Calendar Plan

  • Configuration options
    • Automatic: The Calendar grid is a file that can be included in the Daily Ingestion Process. Your IT team would fill up the template and send it to Nextail updated on a daily basis 
    • Manual: the user can also handle the calendar grid on his/her own - either through data uploads or in the platform directly.
  • Where to view this data
    • Master Data -> Calendar Plan
  • Where to edit this data
    • If the ingestion is automated, your IT team should be responsible for making all changes to the Calendar before sharing it with Nextail during the Data Ingestion
    • If the ingestion is not automated, the user can make all necessary adjustments:
      • In Master Data -> Calendar Plan
      • In Daily Data -> Data Upload -> Calendar Plan
  • How to ensure your scenario uses a given Calendar to generate the waybills:
    • When configuring your scenario, click on “Calendar Plan” and select the relevant one:

Planning Horizon

  • Configuration options
    • Manual: the user can also handle the calendar grid on his/her own - either through data uploads or in the platform directly.
  • Where to view this data
    • Replenishment -> View Past Executions -> PH
    • When using Advanced PH: 
      • Replenishment -> View Past Executions -> Download RO -> Column: Planning Horizon
      • Master Data -> Advanced PH
  • Where to edit this data
    • For automatic executions:
    • For manual simulations: 
  • Extra possibilities for setting up. It will be possible to define:
    • If the Planning Horizon starts on the last day of the Lead Time (arrival day of the stock in the shop floor) or the day after
  • How to ensure your scenario uses a given Planning Horizon:
    • When configuring your scenario, indicate the PH period on the field “Planning Horizon”

Lead Times

  • Configuration options
    • Automatic: Lead times need to be indicated in the Warehouse-Store file and can only be populated to Nextail through the Data Ingestion Process (no changes will be possible to make in the platform directly)
  • Where to view this data
    • Out of Nextail: Warehouse-Store Master file 
    • In Nextail: Replenishment -> View Past Executions -> Download RO -> Column: Lead Time
  • Where to edit this data
    • Only through the Warehouse-Store Master file
  • Extra possibilities for setting up. It will be possible to define:
    • When is the lead time period supposed to start (on the day the replenishment execution is submitted to the warehouse or the day after).
    • If weekends should be included in the Lead Time provided. 

 

Numerical examples to understand the impact on the “Extra configuration possibilities” for Lead Times and PH period

EXAMPLE

  • REPLEN EXECUTION DATE: Monday, August 12th
  • PICKING DAY IN THE WAREHOUSE: Wednesday, August 14th
  • TRANSIT DAYS: 3 
  • Start of the Lead Time period:


  • Weekends


  • Start of the PH period