Overview
Access this functionality by going into the Navigation Bar and clicking More > Connected Items.
Create a new connection - connecting items
To connect a new item to an older one.
Click on the + sign in the top right corner of the toolbar. This creates a new row.
key in the new item no. and the old item no
Tick the green connect button.
Default values
There are default values that are automatically filled in, and can be changed if needed
The defaults are:
Connect stock and undelivered ( see global settings section below)
Connect Sales from: all sales history
Connect sales to: empty
Connection duration: first sale (this means that sales will be connected until the new item's first sales date.
Sale overlap: Sale points added
Scale: 1 (quantity of sales: 1:1 )
When all boxes have been populated, click on the green box with the tick to the left of the row. This will create the connection.
Note:
Each new item can only be connected to one old item
Each old item can be connected to multiple new items.
When all connections have been created, run the action called "Calculate sale history and forecasts" which is highlighted below to build connected sale history and calculate forecasts for the new items. This action will also be executed as part of the daily job every night.
After the action is executed, the connected data should be visible on the new items.
With Connected Items, you can link items with little or no sales history to an existing item with a longer sales history. This enables a higher quality forecast for the new item.
The newer item will display a Connected Sale data series (green dot), where you will be able to see which item(s) it has connected sales history from:
The older item will only show its own sales history, through the Sale data series.
When the Stock and undelivered are connected, the order need for the new item is subject to the stock coverage of the old item. Yielding efficient replenishment and allows the old stock to deplete before re-stocking on the new substitute item.
To find a connected item
Navigate to the connected items workspace and find your newly connected or older item in the list. If the list is long, the user can open view settings, in the filter section add "New item no" filter or "old item no" and find the item in question.
Connected Items can be particularly useful where:
The new item is similar to the existing item. By linking the items, you can take advantage of the existing item's sales history to more accurately predict future demand patterns despite a short or no sales history.
The new item is replacing the older item. In this scenario, the new item may have a different item number than the older item, but it is essentially the same product. Connecting the stock and sales can help to manage the two items as if they were one and ensure that you have the right amount of inventory on hand for the combined item numbers.
Connected Items information
In the connected items workspace, there are a series of columns that help you manage the connection of your connected items.
Column Name | Description |
Id | A unique identifier for the connection. |
New Item No | Item number that will inherit the sales history from the existing item. |
Old Item No | Item number with the sales history which to pass on to the item without a sales history. |
Connect Stock and Undelivered | Select if you want the new item number to inherit the stock and undelivered orders from the old item number. Recommended when a new item is replacing the old item. |
Stock with connection | When stock is connected, this is the combined stock of both items. |
Stock without connection | The stock level of the new item only, as read from the ERP. |
Connect Sales From | Sales histories will be connected to the new item starting from this date. Effective only if Connection Duration is 'To Date'. |
Connect Sales To | Sales histories will be connected to the new item up until this date. Effective only if Connection Duration is 'To Date'. |
Connection Duration | Determines the period when sales are inherited from the old item to the new item:
|
Sale overlap | Determines how the sales of the two items will be connected:
|
Scale | Sales history from the older item will be scaled by this factor. For example, if the scale is 1.5, the inherited sales on the new item will be 1.5x the sales of the old item. |
Global settings
AGR allows you to set several values for connected items globally. To do that,
navigate to the settings area in AGR.
select settings from the dropdown menu.
General settings open automatically. The default settings for connected items are the first set of settings in the list.
