Glossary

Advanced Shipment Notice or Advanced Shipping Notification (ASN)

An electronic data interface (EDI) transaction from vendor to retailer which identifies the vendor number, order number, carton contents and store destination for a particular delivery.

Allocate To

Indicates whether the algorithm allocates to gross need or net need.

Approved

A status that indicates the items on the allocation are reserved in the warehouse and committed to the stores. The allocation will be executed on the release date.

Average Weeks of Supply

The average weeks of supply available for the SKU and location.

Backorder

Indicates that the retailer has accepted an order from the customer in the expectation of this order getting fulfilled by future incoming inventory. Such order quantity gets logged as a backorder quantity for the item and the fulfilling location combination.

Bill of Lading

A list of items, contained in cartons, that are part of a shipment.

Bulk

One purchase order is created for the total quantity of the selected items and assigned to a virtual warehouse.

Class

The fifth division in the merchandise hierarchy. The class breaks down the merchandise hierarchy. A class can belong to one department.

Closed

A status that indicates that the allocation has been executed and reconciled. It cannot be edited.

Complex Group

A method of combining stores or groups of stores to indicate how stores are included or excluded from the allocation.

Corporate Rule

A type of rule. Gross need is gathered directly from the selected column of the corporate table for the items and stores selected.

Cross Dock

A purchase order that directs the goods from the supplier to a warehouse. At the warehouse, the inventory is not put into storage, it is immediately allocated to the proper store.

Date Ranges

The time period you will use to determine need for an allocation.

Deconsolidation Center

An import receiving location that is owned by a third party and facilitates the receiving of import purchase orders. Inventory is never held at these locations as they are flow-through locations. A deconsolidation center may ship inventory to any active location.

Department

Belongs to a group in the merchandise hierarchy and provides a way to define the areas of a group. A department is the fourth division in the merchandise hierarchy.

Direct To Location

A purchase order is created that directs the supplier to ship the items on the purchase order directly to the final location.

Enforce Supply Chain

The allocation will respect the established path of items to a location.

Exclude Intersection

A method used for creating complex groups. An exclude intersection includes all locations that are not duplicated in the groups selected.

Expected Inventory

The difference between what is currently available in the warehouse and inventory that is in transit or on-order quantities.

Fashion Group

A Fashion Group allocation allows multiple fashion packs (single parent/single diff and/or single parent/multi diff packs) to be allocated as a single entity using one demand. Loose items may also be included in the fashion group.

Franchise Order

When an allocation is created for one or more franchise stores, a franchise order is created upon approval of the allocation.

Future Fulfillment

The amount of inventory expected to be available in the future for allocating. Future Fulfillment is based on the warehouse release date. It contains all inbound inventory including on order, in transit, expected transferred inventory and expected allocated inventory. On the Allocation Details screen future fulfillment is the amount at the item/store location. On the What If Summary screen future fulfillment is the amount at all warehouses in the allocation.

History

A type of policy. Uses the sales history for the items, stores, time and sales type selected for the allocation to determine the amount sent to each location. You can include regular, promotional, and/or clearance sales. You can collect the sales history at the department, class, subclass, parent, SKU, or item list level.

History and Plan

A type of policy. Values are gathered from sales history and plan tables for items, stores, and time. History values are gathered for past dates and pertain to sales types, and plan values for future dates. Gross need is the total of the two.

Hold Back

A quantity of the item that remains unallocated. The quantity can be entered as a fixed number or a percent.

Ideal Weeks of Supply

The ideal weeks of supply for the SKU and location. This is applicable only for rules Plan Re-Project.

Intersection

A method used to create complex groups. An intersection includes all locations that are duplicated in the groups selected.

Manual

A type of policy. The user allocates quantities for each item /location combination. There is no criterion associated with a manual policy, apart from what the user specifies. Gross need and on-hand stock are not calculated.

Maximum Net Need

The greatest quantity assignable, admissible, or possible.

Merchandise Hierarchy

The system used to classify merchandise. Each level is a sublevel of the previous level.

Minimum Net Need

The least quantity assignable, admissible, or possible.

Mode

Indicates how the algorithm for the allocation works. Select Simple to allocate without looking for additional inputs about group targets and constraints.

Need is

Indicates how store need is calculated. Select Exact to allocate as closely to store need as possible. Select Proportional to allocate all of the available quantity.

Plan

A type of policy. Uses the planned sales for the item, interfaced from the client planning system, to generate a quantity for each location.

Plan Re-project

A type of policy. Uses Bayesian forecasting to reprove the future dates of the plan. The policy takes sales history and compares it with the plan to create a forecast. Retailers would use this policy mid-season with their actual sales results.

Policy

Used to calculate the need for an allocation.

Proportional

A group editing method whereby each location receives a portion of the allocation in the same ratio (in relation to other locations on the allocation) as previous allocations.

Release Date

The Release Date represents the day in which the warehouse can begin the pick process. This field is required for allocations.

Reserved

A status that indicates that the items on the allocation are reserved in the warehouse and committed to the stores. The allocation will not be executed until the status is changed to approved.

Sales History Type

Indicates the types of sales that are included in the algorithm for the allocation. You cannot select a sales history type for a corporate policy.

Sellable Staple Pack Conversion

The Sellable Staple Pack Conversion check-box in the User Selection window can be checked only in an allocation containing at least one sellable pack. This converts the final allocated quantity into pack units by dividing the calculated net need by the sellable pack size.

Source

The origin of the items on the allocation. Items can originate from one of many sources, a combination of sources, or you can create a hypothetical allocation, called a What If allocation.

Spread demand

The Spread Demand mode allows you to allocate multiple items for a single store demand. This mode can be applied on the Policy window at the subclass level or higher while creating an allocation. The need value at the merchandise hierarchy level is spread among the set of items belonging to that hierarchy based on their availability ratio.

Status

The current condition of an allocation.

Stock On Hand

The total number of units on hand at a location.The Stock On Hand is the summation of (transfer reserved + RTV reserved + non-sellable + allocated quantity + customer order reserved) subtracted from the Total stock on hand. On the Allocation Details screen this is the number of units at the item/store location. On the What If Summary screen, it is the number of units at all warehouses.

Stock Order

A document that requests an inventory movement from one location to another through a transfer or allocation. Stock Orders may be initiated at the headquarters' request or a location level request.

Stop Ship

An item/location combination that prevents an item from shipping to that location. Only valid for item/store combinations.

Store Calculation Multiple

The item multiple an allocation uses during the rounding process. Valid choices are: pallet, case, inner, or each. The number of items that must be allocated together. For an allocation, valid multiples are pallet, case, inner, and each.

Store Grade

Store Grades are defined outside of the Allocation product. Not defined by the Buyer.

Parent

The seventh level of the merchandise hierarchy. A parent can only belong to one subclass.

Subclass

The sixth level of the merchandise hierarchy. A subclass can only belong to one class.

Submitted

A status that indicates the allocation is in review for approval. It has not been sent to the warehouse and is not committed to the stores.

Supplier

The person or entity that provides items to a retailer.

Threshold

The amount of item that must be reached before an allocation can be created. If the allocation quantity does not meet the threshold the allocation is not created.

Union

A method used for creating complex groups. A union includes all locations in the groups selected.

User Defined Attribute

An identifying quality that has been set up by the user.

Warehouse

A storage and/or distribution facility where inventory may be received, held and transferred to other locations.

Warehouse PO Type

One purchase order per supplier is created and the items are shipped to the warehouses shown on the allocation.

Weeks of Supply

The amount of items needed to supply the store for a given number of weeks.

Worksheet

Worksheet represents a status and a window in Allocation.

Status: A status that indicates that an allocation is editable and has not been sent to the warehouse and is not committed to the stores.

Window: The Worksheet window allows you to select items that you want to allocate.