Analysis

From this menu, the user will be able to generate two different type of Analysis used in the Ordering process:

1)Product Ordering;

2)Replenishment 

To have a better understanding of the difference between these two types of analysis – please refer to section Program documented below.

From this menu, the user will need to fill all of the fields explained below. Then once the user is done, by clicking Start Analysis, the system will generate an Analysis based on all options selected initially. The user will be able to make any modifications to the analysis - delete the analysis if needed and print the analysis once modified. By printing the analysis, this will generated a Purchase Order that can be recall, modified, and finalized from the Purchase Orders Entry.

The user will be able to keep track of all steps done on an analysis by looking at the box on the top right corner of this menu:

Once a step is completed - the system will save the date when it was done under the appropriate step.

Fields Definition

Reference: This field is Alpha-numerical and can include a maximum of 25 characters. This field can either be generate by the user, or if left blank, will be automatically generate by the system. This represents the reference that will be assigned to the analysis once it will be run by the user. If the field is left blank - the system will automatically generated and assigned a new Reference number to the analysis.

Once created, the user can always go back and recall an existing Analysis to make modifications, or even to print the Analysis.

If the user remember the Reference of the analysis, he can only type in the reference number and hit enter - this will recall the analysis with all the options selected previously.

By pressing F1 with the cursor positioned in the reference field, the system will open the Search Window. The user will then be able to look for existing analysis, and recall them in the main screen by double clicking on the selected one. The Search Screen will display the analysis by their Reference Number and give the updated status of each analysis:

Status: This field is automatically generated by the system and gives the current status of the analysis. The different status are as followed:

•New: First time the user open that menu to generate a new analysis and assigned a Reference number, the Status will be marked as New because the Analysis is just created but was not start yet;

•Analyzed: Once the analysis is run and the system produce a list of suggested items to order, the Status will change from New to Analyzed;

•Print: If the user print the analysis on a PDF report or a grid, the system will update the Status of the analysis from Analyzed to Print;

•Modified: If any modifications are needed, and the user change the suggested quantity or items to be ordered from the Modifications menu, the system will update the Status of the analysis to Modified. 

Program: From this field, the user defined which kind of analysis he wants to run. The options are the following one:

•Product Ordering: This analysis will generate a Purchase Order using the min/ max quantities set up in the Inventory Maintenance under the tab Ordering of each individual product;

•Replenishment: This analysis will generate a Purchase Order using the following fields set up in the Vendor Maintenance under the section Automatic Replenishment: Day of ordering, Weeks of Sales, and Week Type. These fields are explained under the Main - Main information section of the Vendor Maintenance. Please refer to this section for further explanations.

          Therefore, the Product Ordering Analysis which will run an ordering analysis based on specific min and max quantities set up in the Inventory Maintenance. On the other hand, the Replenishment                     report will produce an ordering analysis based on the Sales History of the selected product.

Vendors: During  the set up of each individual Product from the Inventory Maintenance, the user can attached more than one vendor from which the item will be order on the X-Index. From this tab, the user will define if a vendor is a main vendor or an alternate vendor.

When the user run an Analysis for Product Ordering or Replenishment, the user will have the ability to specified for which Vendor the analysis will be run. Depending on which option is selected, the system will look at all options set up in the different tab of the selected vendors from the Vendor Maintenance (Ordering tab if the Product Ordering analysis is selected, and Automatic Replenishment section of the Main - Main information if the Replenishment is selected).

The user will have to select between the following options:

•Use All: Combination of Main and Manufacturer vendors;

•Use Main;

•Use Manufacturer

Day of: This field will be available only if the Replenishment analysis is selected. If the user selects a specific day of ordering when he runs the analysis, the system will generate a Purchase Order only for the vendors who are set up with this selected day in the Day of ordering field from the vendor maintenance.

           i.e: During the set up of an account in the vendor maintenance, the user specified the Day of Ordering for this vendor as Thursday. From the Products Reordering Analysis, the user selects Replenishment as a program, and specifies Thursday in the Day of  field.

With these options selected - the system will generate a Replenishment analysis and specifies the quantity to order for all products that have a Main Vendor with Thursday as a Day of ordering in the Vendor Maintenance under the Automatic Replenishment section.

Weeks of Sales: This field will be available only if the Replenishment analysis is selected. The system will calculate the quantity to order based on the number of weeks selected in this field. The system will use the sales history for the same period of the previous year.

The user will have the choice to select a number of weeks from 1 to 52, or to use the As per Vendor option. If selected, the system will take in consideration the Weeks of Sales set up in each Vendor file, from the Main - Main information tab under the Automatic Replenishment section.

Week Type: From this field, the user decide if the Replenishment analysis should be run for all weeks, or for specific type of week (Odd or Even). If this option is selected, the system will run the ordering analysis based on the sales history of the previous year, for the selected type of week.

The user will have the ability to choose between the following options:

•All;

•Even;

•Odd;

•As per vendor: This field is available in the Main- Main information tab of the Vendor Maintenance under the Automatic Replenishment section. Therefore, if as per vendor option if selected, the system will run the analysis based on what was already set up in the Vendor Maintenance for each individual vendor.

Analysis Sequence: From this field, the user defined how he wants his analysis to be run. The user will have the following options and can only selected one option per analysis.

•Product: If selected, the screen should look as follow:

By clicking on Add, the user will be allow to add one item at a time. The system will run the analysis only for the items that will be selected. If other items need to be ordered based on the other selected options of the report, but were not included in these fields, the system will not considered them in the final analysis.

By pressing F1 with the cursor positioned in the Product Field, the user will have access to the Search Window and will have the ability to perform a search between all items created in the Inventory Maintenance.

•Category:  If selected, the screen should look as follow:

By clicking on Add, the user will be allow to add one or multiple categories to the analysis. The system will run the analysis and only considered items that are included in the categories specified from these fields. If other items need to be ordered based on the other selected options of the report, but were excluded from the selected categories, the system will not considered them in the final analysis.

By pressing F1 with the cursor positioned in any of the Category field, the user will have access to the Search Window and will have the ability to perform a search between all categories created in the Inventory Maintenance.

•Location:  If selected, the screen should look as follow:

By clicking on Add, the user will be allow to add one or multiple locations to the analysis. The system will run the analysis on only considered items that are included in the locations specified from these fields. If other items need to be ordered based on the other selected options of the report, but were excluded from the selected locations, the system will not considered them in the final analysis.

By pressing F1 with the cursor positioned in any of the following fields: Aisle, Row, Shelf, Box - the user will have access to the Search Window and will have the ability to perform a search between all locations created in the Inventory Maintenance.

•Vendor Type: If selected, the screen should look as follow:

By clicking on Add, the user will be allow to add one or multiple vendor type to the analysis. The system will run the analysis on only considered items that has the selected type of vendor as main and/or manufacturer vendor. If other items need to be ordered based on the other selected options of the report, but has as a main and/or manufacturer vendor set up as a type of vendor excluded from the selected type, the system will not considered them in the final analysis.

By pressing F1 with the cursor positioned in the type field, the user will have access to the Search Window and will have the ability to perform a search between all vendor types created in the Vendor Maintenance.

•Vendor: If selected, the screen should look as follow:

By clicking on Add, the user will be allow to add one or multiple vendors to the analysis. The system will run the analysis on only considered items that has as main and/or manufacturer vendor the selected vendors from these fields. If other items need to be ordered based on the other selected options of the report, but has as a main and/or manufacturer vendor excluded from the selected one, the system will not considered them in the final analysis.

By pressing F1 with the cursor positioned in the vendor field - the user will have access to the Search Window and will have the ability to perform a search between all locations created in the Inventory Maintenance.

Warehouses:

Only applicable for Multi-Store Company. If so, by not selecting the box Select All Warehouses, the user can run an Analysis for specific store. If so, the user will need to specified the Warehouse ID for which the Analysis is applicable.

If more than one Warehouse is selected for the analysis, the user can decided to either generate one Purchase Order by Warehouse - or one Combine Purchase Order for all Warehouse. To do so, the user will need to either checked or unchecked the box Create Purchase Order by warehouse.

Start Analysis

Once all fields of this menu are filed, the user needs to click on Start Analysis at the bottom of the Menu.

The following warning will prompt on the screen:

This warning is important because it tells the user that once the analysis is Started, if any options selected in from this menu needs to be change, the system will not allowed it. The user will need to generate a new analysis with a new Reference number.

By clicking on NO - the system will go back to the main menu and display all options selected on this analysis. The user can make any modifications needed and click on Start Analysis again once ready.

By clicking on YES - the system will start the analysis and either produce a Product Ordering report or Replenishment report (depending on which program was selected) based on all criteria that were previously selected by the user.

The system will display on the screen a list of results based on the analysis that was run. The user can only see his analysis on this screen but can not make any modifications from this menu. To learn more about how to make modifications on a Product Reordering analysis or Replenishment analysis, please refer to the Modifications menu.

The status of the analysis will then changed from New to Analyzed and the date will be update on the Analyzed field of the Main Menu.

If the user press Enter or Click on the analysis that is presented on the screen - the system will go back to the main menu where all criteria that defined the analysis were selected.

There will be new options that displayed at the bottom of the screen:

•Display Ordered: If selected, the system will present the items that should be ordered with their quantity based on the analysis that was run. The user will only be able to see it on the screen, and will not be able to make any modifications from there. This option is not a report - it is only a viewer on the screen.

•Display Rejects: If selected, the system will show on the screen the list of items that were part of the analysis that were not suggested to be ordered by the system because they did not met one of the selected criteria. The system will give a list of these rejects with a reason why they should not be ordered. This option is not a report - it is only a viewer on the screen. However, this could be helpful to the user to go through that list and see if any of the rejects should be ordered anyway.

•Delete reference: This will delete completely the analysis that was ran by the system. Therefore, the user should select this option only if:

                    - The analysis was run and nothing was recommend to be ordered;

                    - The user wants to run another analysis based on other criteria;

                    - The analysis was run and the user completed it as an Order and sent the Purchase Order to the vendor.

                    Once run, the Reference will be saved in the system until it is delete by the user.

•Print: If selected, the system will print the result of the analysis on a report. This report can include or not the rejects. The system will prompt the an option for the user to either include or exclude the rejects from the report. The report can either be print as a PDF file, or a Grid - and includes the following information.

          If the rejects should be include in the analysis - the report will split the Quantity to Order from the Rejects, and add as a comment the reason for rejection.

          Once print - the report can also be send by email to any user in the Company.

          This report could help the user to take any decision whether the Order should be created as it is or make any modification.

Please note that if the user decides to send the Purchase Order - he will need to open the Purchase Order from the Purchase Order entry than finalize the Purchase Order so it is send by email or fax depending on what is set up from the Vendor Maintenance. This is not something that can be done directly from this menu.