A Appendix: Integration with MFP Cloud Service, RDF Cloud Service, and ORASE

Assortment & Item Planning Cloud Service supports flat file integration with MFP Cloud Service to import MFP Plan data, RDF Cloud Service to import forecast data, and ORASE for Location Cluster data.

Integration with MFP Cloud Service

Note: If both MFP CS and A&IP CS are integrated using PDS, then all integrated MFP measures will be readily available in A&IP as and when plans are approved in MFP CS. Still, the batch process needs to be scheduled in MFP to spread the data to the Sub-Class/Location level.

A&IP CS needs MFP data to use Merchandise Financial Planning data as a target to align with final assortments.

MFP Cloud Service provides plan data extracts for Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service. It exports the approved Original (OP) and Current (CP) Merch Plans. Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service only uses Current Plans, but MFP Cloud Service exports both Current and Original Plans. It also exports the Last Approved Plan version (AP) of the Location Plan. This data is used by A&IP in batch to split Warehouse data from the Channel level to the Location level.

MFP Cloud Service exports Merch Plan and copies it to the common Cloud Service application share location $RGBU_CLOUD_DATA. From there, Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service can access the same.

Data extracted from MFP Cloud Service, can be loaded by scheduling the Online Administration task Process MFP Data. This task loads the required data files into Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service. In MFP Cloud Service, Merch Plan data will be at the Sub-Class/Channel level, but Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service needs one version of MFP data at the Sub-Class/Location level. After the MFP data load, it also runs the batch calculation that will spread the loaded MFP data from the Sub-Class/Channel to the Sub-Class/Location level using the Last Year unit plan data in Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service to spread the Sales, Receipt, and EOP measures. The OTB file will be loaded as *.rpl file to initialize and load the On Order and OTB data.

The following sections list the measure files exported to Assortment & Item Planning for Fashion/Softlines Cloud Service from MFP Cloud Service.

MFP Retail/Cost Cloud Service to Item Planning Cloud Service

MFP Measure	MFP Measure Label	A&IP CS Measure Loaded	Base Intersection	Exported File Name
mpcpsls1u	MP CP Sales Reg+Promo U	mlcpsls1u	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpsls2u	MP CP Clr U	mlcpsls2u	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpsls1r	MP CP Sales Reg+Promo R	mlcpsls1r	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpsls2r	MP CP Clr R	mlcpsls2r	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpcogsc/mpcpnslsc	MP CP COGS C / MP CP Net Sales C	mlcpslsc	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprcptu	MP CP Receipts U	mlcprcptu	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprcptr	MP CP Receipts R	mlcprcptr	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprcptc	MP CP Receipts C	mlcprcptc	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpeopu	MP CP EOP U	mlcpeopu	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpeopr	MP CP EOP R	mlcpeopr	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcpeopc	MP CP EOP C	mlcpeopc	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprtn1u	MP CP Returns Reg+Promo U	mlcprtn1u	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprtn2u	MP CP Returns Clr U	mlcprtn2u	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprtn1r	MP CP Returns Reg+Promo R	mlcprtn1r	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpcprtn2r	MP CP Returns Clr R	mlcprtn2r	week_scls_chnl	mfp_mpcp.csv.ovr
mpwpotbu	MP WP OTB U	mlwpotbu	week_scls_chnl	mfp_otb.csv.rpl
mpwpooadju	MP WP OO Adj U	mlwpooadju	week_scls_chnl	mfp_otb.csv.rpl
mpwpotbc	MP WP OTB C	mlwpotbc	week_scls_chnl	mfp_otb.csv.rpl
mpwpooadjc	MP WP OO Adj C	mlwpooadjc	week_scls_chnl	mfp_otb.csv.rpl
lpapslsu	LP AP Sales U	lplaslsu	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpapslsr	LP AP Sales R	lplaslsr	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpapcogsc/lpapnslsc	LP AP Sales C	lplaslsc	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpaprcptu	LP AP Receipts U	lplarcptu	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpaprcptr	LP AP Receipts R	lplarcptr	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpaprcptc	LP AP Receipts C	lplarcptc	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpapeopu	LP AP EOP U	lplaeopu	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpapeopr	LP AP EOP R	lplaeopr	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpapeopc	LP AP EOP C	lplaeopc	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpaprtnu	LP AP Returns U	lplartnu	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr
lpaprtnr	LP AP Returns R	lplartnr	week_dept_stor	mfp_lpap.csv.ovr

Note: If integrating with MFP Retail Cloud Service, the calculated Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) will be exported as Sales Cost. COGS cost is averaged over all inventory. It includes losses such as shrink and so on. Some customization will be needed to the exports, if the customer is not intended to directly use the COGS as Sales Cost.

Integration with RDF Cloud Service

Note: If both MFP CS and RDF CS are integrated using PDS, then approved forecast measure data will be readily available in A&IP. The Generate Forecast Boolean should be set to False to avoid generating a forecast within A&IP batch.

A&IP CS supports generating simple Forecast Sales Units at the sku/store/week level using historical sales data. But if retailers want to use advanced forecast data from RDF Cloud Service at the sku/store/week level, the same can be exported from RDF Cloud Service and loaded to A&IP CS using the Online Administration Tool task Load Measure Data -> RDF Forecast.

The file fctyslsu.csv.ovr is needed from RDF Cloud Service at the Cloud Share location
(RGBU_CLOUD_DATA). That file will be loaded into the same measure.

To generate the forecast within A&IP CS, the Online Administration Tool task Batch Calculations -> Generate Forecast needs to be scheduled. Both generate a forecast within A&IP CS or load the forecast from RDF Cloud Service and populate the same forecast measure used in A&IP CS. If the customer wants to calculate a forecast instead of loading the forecast in batch, they can set the Boolean Generate Forecast to true in Planning Administration -> Batch Setup. By default, generate forecast is scheduled to run on a weekly basis during implementation in the weekly batch.

Integration with ORASE

A&IP CS supports integration with ORASE to load the generated Location Clusters, load Demand Transference Data, load Size Profile Data, and export Active Assortments and Assortment Periods.

For the interfaces from ORASE based on the modules enabled in the ORASE side, it will create a single compressed zip file ORASE_WEEKLY_extract.zip. The A&IP customer can also enable the interfaces as separate modules by setting the Boolean measures "Enable RSE Cluster Integration" for Location Clusters, "Enable RSE DT Integration" for Demand Transference Data, and "Enable RSE SPO Integration" for Size Profile Data in the Planning Admin Batch Setup view. Those measures will be found in the show/hide view as editable measures. If any of the ORASE modules are enabled, the weekly batch will wait for the ORASE_WEEKLY_extract.zip.complete file and then unpack the compressed ORASE_WEEKLY_extract.zip file. It then executes those enabled interfaces by looking for the required input files. For more details about each interface, see the following sections.

Load Location Clusters

ORASE supports generating clusters at different levels such as Division, Department, and Class level, but currently A&IP CS only accepts the clusters defined at Department Level. Retailers can define their location clusters at Department level in ORASE and export those clusters. The exported cluster file, rsestrclst.csv, from ORASE will be copied to the Cloud Share location. It can be formatted and loaded by scheduling the Online Administration Tool task Load Location Clusters. The Cluster Hierarchy file uses the same Location IDs for Cluster ID; so Location Cluster IDs, though any location can be assigned to any other cluster ID, cluster IDs should be using the same range of location IDs in ORASE as well. After loading, the loaded cluster will always replace the Cluster Version 00, Loaded Cluster for that department. Customers can use that loaded cluster version to assign them to their Assortment Periods in the Assortment Period Maintenance process within A&IP.

File name: rsestrclst.csv

File format: comma-separated values file

Fields: Effective Start Date, Effective End Date, Department, Store, Store Cluster Position, Store Cluster Label

The following table describes the fields in this file.

Field	Description
Effective Start Date	Effective Start Date in dayYYYYMMDD format
Effective End Date	Effective End Date in dayYYYYMMDD format
Hierarchy Product	Department ID in the Product
Hierarchy Store	Store ID in the Location Hierarchy
Store Cluster Position	Location Cluster Position ID
Store Cluster Label	Location Cluster Position Label
Last Exported Date	Last Exported Date

Example:

EFF_START_DT,EFF_END_DT,PROD_EXT_KEY,LOC_EXT_KEY,CLUSTER_ID,CLUSTER_LABEL,EXPORTED_DT
day20180204,day20190202,DEPT~2222,3581,1009,PE_Cluster_01,5/28/2018
day20180204,day20190202,DEPT~2222,3513,1009,PE_Cluster_01,5/28/2018
day20180204,day20190202,DEPT~2222,3366,1009,PE_Cluster_01,5/28/2018
day20180204,day20190202,DEPT~2222,3307,1009,PE_Cluster_01,5/28/2018

Load ORASE DT Data

A&IP uses Demand Transference to optimize assortments in the Build Wedge process. In order to calculate Demand Transference and Item Similarities across products, it needs Assortment Elasticity (drtyassrtelasv), Product Attribute Weights (drtyattrwgtv), and Functional Fit (drtyfuncfitb) data from ORASE. ORASE can provide the data at the SubClass/Channel/All Customer Segment level. It exports the files drtyassrtelas.csv.ovr and drtyattrwgtv.csv.ovr to the Cloud Share location compressed as the ORASE_WEEKLY_extract.zip file, together with the trigger file with the extension .complete.

The customer can schedule the Online Administration Task Load ORASE DT Data to transform the files to loadable format, and then load into the application. If RMF CS Integration is enabled, the subclass id present in the ORASE file needs to be transformed to be the same as the sub-class id loaded within the hierarchy file, since RMF CS uses a unique sub-class id for hierarchy positions, but ORASE uses non-unique sub-class ids.

ORASE uses non-unique class and sub-class id, so to make product id unique, it concatenates dept, class, and subclass using '~' in the format SBC~<Dept>~<Clss>~<SubClass> and concatenates CHANNEL for channel. It also concatenates category names to attributes to make them unique.

The custom process ap_new_rse_dt does the transformation of files into the required format and also transforms sub-class ids if RMF CS Integration is enabled.

Loaded data can be viewed in the Planning Administration workbook in the DT Setup view.

File name: drtyassrtelasv.csv.ovr

File format: comma-separated values file

Sample file:

"SBC~19~8~1","CHANNEL~5000","1","-0.7700387","2019-08-27",""
"SBC~19~8~2","CHANNEL~1100","1","-0.5840404","2019-08-27",""
"SBC~19~8~3","CHANNEL~1400","1","-0.5498014","2019-08-27",""

Transformed file format before loading the measure drtyassrtelasv:

1,5000,1,-0.7700387
2,1100.1,-0.5840404
3,1400,1,-0.5498014

File name: drtyattrwgtv.csv.ovr

File format: comma-separated values file

Sample file:

"SBC~19~8~1","CHANNEL~4400","1","COFFEE_TEA~FORM","0.094779","0"
"SBC~19~8~2","CHANNEL~4300","1","COFFEE_TEA~FORM","0.094779","0"
"SBC~19~8~3","CHANNEL~8300","1","COFFEE_TEA~FORM","0.094779","0"

Transformed file format before loading the measures drtyattrwgtv and drtyfuncfitb:

1,4400,FORM,1,0.094779,0
2,4300,FORM,1,0.094779,0
3,8300,FORM,1,0.094779,0

Load Size Profile Data

A&IP uses Size Profile Data from SPO in Item Planning for planning and rounding receipts by Size Packs. Size Profile Information is planned in Size Profile Optimization that can be interfaced to A&IP to load the Size Hierarchy file (sizh.csv.dat) and also load the Size Profile Information (adwpsizeprfp.csv.ovr).

Size Profile Optimization (SPO) from ORASE can provide the data at the SubClass/Store /Size level. In order to ensure all Sizes are present, Size data also will be extracted and loaded into the Size Hierarchy file from SPO. SPO exports the files spo_size_profile.csv to the Cloud Share location compressed as the ORASE_WEEKLY_extract.zip file, together with the trigger file with the extension .complete.

The customer can schedule the Online Administration Task Load Size Profile Data which will extract the required columns for the Size Hierarchy file and Size Profile file from the input file rows set as Y for column USED_BY_AIP. If RMF CS integration is enabled, the subclass id present in the ORASE file needs to be transformed to be the same as the sub-class id loaded within the hierarchy file, since RMF CS uses a unique sub-class id for hierarchy positions, but ORASE uses non-unique sub-class ids.

ORASE uses non-unique class and sub-class id, so to make product id unique, it concatenates dept, class, and subclass using a ~ in the format SBC~<Dept>~<Clss>~<SubClass>.

The custom process ap_rse_spo does the transformation of files to extract required columns in the required format and also transforms sub-class ids if RMF CS integration is enabled. After translation, it also loads the Size Hierarchy file and also the Size Profile measure.

Loaded data can be viewed in the Planning Administration workbook in the Define Size Profiles view. It will be used by Item Planning for planning Receipts by Size.

File name: sizh.csv.dat

File format: comma-separated values file

Sample extracted Size Hierarchy file:

"04_0t15","4 Master","0t15master","Master 0t15"

File name: adwpsizeprfp.csv.ovr

File format: comma-separated values file

Sample extracted Size Profile file at Sub-Class/Store/Size level:

long_sleeve,1000,04_0t15,0.1
short_sleeve,1000,04_0t15,0.2

Export Active Assortments to ORASE

The A&IP FSL CS customer can define assortment periods for active items, if the customer uses A&IP FSL CS and RDF CS together with ORASE. Then, the customer can export those assortment periods defined in A&IP FSL CS to ORASE, which ORASE uses to define calculate multipliers to use in Demand Transference for RDF CS. The customer can schedule this process on demand which exports the assortment periods as file rse_assort_plan_per_stg.txt compressed as zip file ORASE_WEEKLY_IP.zip. The compressed zip file will be placed into the Cloud Share location from where ORASE can use it for further processing. It also creates a trigger file with the extension .complete.

Exported file will be in CSV format.

Export set name: Active Assortment to ORASE

Export set: exp_rse_asrt

Exported file: exp_rse_act_asrt.dat

Transformed file: rse_assort_plan_per_stg.txt

Export Criteria: Approved Active Assortments for the current period, that is, Active items with current exported date between Start Date and End Date for the item.

Measure	Measure Label	Data Type
sku	Item
stor	Store
IPDBSrtD	Start Date	Date
IPDBEndD	End Date	Date

Export Assortment Periods to ORASE

The A&IP FSL CS customer can define assortment periods at the department level and the same can be exported to ORASE to define the location clusters at the department/all company level. The customer can schedule this process on demand which exports the assortment periods as file rse_planning_period.txt compressed as zip file ORASE_WEEKLY_ADHOC.zip to ORASE. The compressed zip file will be placed into the Cloud Share location from where ORASE can use it for further processing. It also creates a trigger file with the extension .complete. This process also runs as part of weekly batch if the ORASE clustering module is enabled (DRDVRSESTRCB).

Exported file will be in CSV format.

Export set name: Assortment Periods to ORASE

Export set: exp_rse_strc

Exported file: exp_rse_rse_strc.dat

Export Criteria: Export the planned Assortment periods which are set to true for the Export Period for Clustering measure.

Transformed file: rse_planning_period.txt

File format:

Field Name	Field Description	GA Measure
DESCR	Descriptive text for this effective period. Set as Assortment Period Label as defined by Customer in A&IP.	BCDVPrdL
EXT_NAME	This is the cluster name. Set as concatenation of Department & "_" & Assortment Period for GA Integration.	BCDVClusterT
PROD_EXT_KEY	The external identifier for the product. Set as Department Id for GA Integration.	BCDVPPRODT
LOC_EXT_KEY	The external identifier for the location. Set as Company Id for GA Integration.	BCDVPLOCT
PROD_HIER_TYPE_NAME	The name of the product hierarchy type associated with this product hierarchy node. Defaulted to 'Product Hierarchy' for GA Integration.	DRDCPPRODT
LOC_HIER_TYPE_NAME	The name of the location hierarchy type associated this like product relates to. Defaulted to 'Location Hierarchy' for GA Integration.	DRDCPLOCT
EFF_FROM_DT	Start Date as YYYYMMDD in the interface.	BCDVSrtD
EFF_TO_DT	End Date as YYYYMMDD in the interface.	BCDVEndD
CURRENT_FLG	A flag to indicate whether this row is the most recent row (Y), or if it is an historical row (N). Defaulted to 'Y' for GA Integration.	DRDVFlagYT
DELETE_FLG	A flag to indicate whether the row is considered deleted (Y) or not (N). Defaulted to 'N' for GA Integration.	DRDVFlagNT
PROD_HIER_LVL_NAME	Name of product hierarchy level type. Defaulted to 'DEPT' for GA Integration.	DRDVPPRODT
LOC_HIER_LVL_NAME	Name of location hierarchy level type. Defaulted to 'COMPANY' for GA Integration	DRDVPLOCT

Example:

AP1,100_ap01,100,1,Product Hierarchy,Location Hierarchy,20230826,20230930,Y,N,DEPT,COMPANY
AP2,200_ap02,200,1,Product Hierarchy,Location Hierarchy,20231007,20231111,Y,N,DEPT,COMPANY
AP3,300_ap03,300,1,Product Hierarchy,Location Hierarchy,20231118,20231223,Y,N,DEPT,COMPANY

Note: If an Enterprise Edition customer is planning to use this interface to export the assortment periods at a different level, for example at the Sub-class level to define clusters, the customer needs to customize the configuration to evaluate the GA Mapped measures exported to contain the required values at the Sub-class level.