Cost Simulations

Overview of Cost Impact Simulations

The In-Memory Cost Management Cloud Service Cost Impact Simulation tool provides a method to analyze the impact of cost variations in items, resources, overheads, and recipes in your enterprise. Simulated cost is rolled up cost based on the new cost entered. The Cost Impact Simulation worksheet lets you:

You can specify the new cost and review all impacted assemblies and subassemblies—viewing the current on hand, work in process, and in transit values compared with the simulated value. Oracle Smart View uses data changes you input and executes one of several PL/SQL procedures depending on the simulation stage. These stages include: validating, creating, or updating a simulation.

After creating a simulation, you can see a summary view of assembly level cost data and an exploded detail view of indented cost data. The detail page enables you to review the indented cost structure. New cost changes and usage rates can be made to material, material overhead, resources, overhead, outside processing, and resubmitted in the simulation program.

You can also view data on Oracle Analytics Cloud Service dashboard after creating the simulation. The ability to export or print the output is available from the View Logs dialog box in the Background Processes page.

Note: When launching the Oracle Analytics Cloud Service pages from the Cost Impact Simulator, a user needs to be set up for both the Cost Simulator and the Profit Analyzer roles. See: Application Roles

Related Topics

Connecting to Data Sources

Using the Member Selector

Creating Cost Simulations

Viewing Cost Simulation Summaries and Details

Modifying Cost Simulation Results

Creating Cost Simulations

The Cost Impact Simulation tool uses Microsoft Excel and Oracle Smart View for Office to investigate the data contained in your cost structures to create simulations. Results can be analyzed in summary and detail pages:

Use the Member Selector to find records or enter text in your search. You then refresh the data entry, enter simulated costs, and submit the changes for the simulated rollup.

Note: Older simulations created can be viewed by query in the View Summary page.

Value Searching Methods for Simulations

When searching for values for cost simulations—you can either enter search criteria and select Refresh to update the column values, or enter values in the required columns:

In both methods, the system calculates a simulation cost value with the new cost you supply.

To enter cost parameters in the Cost Impact Simulation tool

  1. Navigate to the Cost Simulation worksheet by first selecting Discrete or Process.

    Note: In the In-Memory Cost Management Cloud Service product, Smart View always opens in a new active Excel worksheet.

  2. If you need to establish or change a connection to your data, select the Smart View Panel, see: Connecting to Data Sources

  3. Enter search parameters by entering values, or partial values and wild card characters in the required parameter columns.

    • Entity Type:

      • Discrete environments: ITEM, RESOURCE, or OVERHEAD

      • Process environments: ITEM OR RESOURCE

    • Entity: Values for the Entity Type selected.

    • Legal Entity: For Process Manufacturing environments, incorporated business that can contain several organization cost groups.

    • Organization: A business unit such as a plant, warehouse, division, department.

    • Cost Type: For example - Standard, Average, Frozen, or any value created in your organization.

  4. You can filter your search by looking for values:

    • Discrete environments: Description, Department, Cost Element, Subelement.

    • Process environments: Organization, Calendar, or Period.

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  5. To select multiple values, choose Member Selection.

    The Member Selection dialog box appears for selecting from a large list of specific column type values, see: Using the Member Selector

  6. Depending on the search method selected, you will choose either Refresh or Simulate, see: Value Searching Methods for Simulations

  7. If you choose Refresh, the corresponding data for the parameters selected appears.

    Note: The Refresh function displays only user defined or defaulted costs for a particular entity.

    The associated data displays in the rows of the worksheet.

    Parameters Discrete Industries Values Process Industries Values
    Entity Type ITEM, RESOURCE, or OVERHEAD ITEM or RESOURCE
    Entity Part number or name of the item, resource, or overhead entity type selected Part number or name of the item or resource entity type selected
    Legal Entity Not applicable Corporation, partnership for a legal construct
    Cost Type Standard, ACTUAL, or frozen Same as Discrete
    Organization Business unit such as a plant, warehouse, division, department Same as Discrete
    Calendar Not applicable Costing calendars define an unlimited number of costing periods.
    Period Not applicable Calendar periods, each period is assigned a period status to indicate costing activity.
    Rate or Amount

    • Current—for the cost type selected

    • Simulated—this field is blank. You enter a value when creating a simulation.

    		Same as Discrete
    Description Item, resource, or overhead description or name Item or resource description or name
    Usage Type Not applicable Indicates if the cost type is for general or lab use.
    Component Class Code Not applicable Identifies the cost component class associated to each item cost record.
    Analysis Code Not applicable Codes used to group component costs from multiple cost component class types
    Total Cost Total item cost in the selection Same as Discrete
    Department An area within your organization that consists of people, machines, or suppliers Not applicable
    Lot Size Size of a specific set of an item identified by a number Not applicable
    Cost Element A classification for the cost of an item Not applicable
    Cost Subelement Individual element accounts Not applicable
    Activity Not applicable Used for planning and calculating resource costs and includes tasks performed in a production batch.
    Basis Type determining how overhead is calculated such as Item or Lot Not applicable
    Basis Factor Amount or quantity the rate or amount is multiplied by to calculate the unit cost of the subelement Not applicable
    Currency Code Functional currency of the ledger associated to the legal entity Same as Discrete
    Unit of Measure Primary unit of measure Same as Discrete
    Error If there are errors, detailed text related to the simulation error appears in this column. Same as Discrete

  8. Select Load Values to populate the Quantity, Current, Simulated values with data for the following values:

    • On hand

    • WIP

    • In Transit

    The basis cost type for these values associated with the simulation is also loaded in the corresponding cell.

To launch a cost simulation

  1. After you have searched for, or entered data in the Cost Simulation worksheet, enter cost changes in the Simulated Rate or Amount column.

  2. Select Simulate. The Calculation Script dialog box appears for entering parameter values.

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  3. Enter required values in the Simulation Code and Simulation Description prompts.

    The Simulation code can be an alphanumeric value less than or equal to 10 characters.

  4. Optionally for Discrete cost simulations, you have the option to select the following runtime prompts:

    • Assignment Set: A group of sourcing rules for items whose replenishment they control.

    • Buy Cost Type: If an assignment set is specified, costs are summed into this level of material cost.

    • Conversion Type

    • Effective Date

    • Unimplemented ECOs: Indicate whether to include unimplemented engineering change orders.

    • Alternate Bill

    • Alternate Routing

    • Engineering Bills

    • Lot Size Option

    • Lot Size Setting

    • Include Configs with Closed Orders

    • Config's Order Start Date

  5. Select Launch to create the simulation.

    • If the simulation is successful, a success message appears. The results appear in the View Summary page after a successful generation when you close Calculation Script dialog box.

    • If the simulation is unsuccessful, an error message appears. You must resubmit and launch your data again to create a simulation.

    In the Errors column, a line level detail error appears when simulation ends in error. Errors are caused when one of the required search parameters does not have a value. An informational message appears if there are no results from your selected search parameters.

Related Topics

Viewing Cost Simulation Summaries and Details

Modifying Cost Simulation Results

Viewing Cost Simulation Summaries and Details

The View Summary page shows the finished goods unit cost summary information; you can review the simulated and current cost of the impacted assemblies and subassemblies. The View Detail page enables you to review the indented cost structure of a particular impacted assembly and subassembly for the simulation.

To view cost simulation summaries

  1. Navigate to the View Summary page.

    The Summary page layout shows the finished goods assembly costs in a summary format. Two types of unit costs appear for comparison: current cost and simulated cost.

    Discrete Industries

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    Process Industries

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    Note: This worksheet is view-only. You cannot modify any data in the summary layout.

    The information appears in the following columns:

    Discrete Process
    Item Entity
    Item Type Entity Type
    Description Description
    Item Status Not applicable
    Lifecycle Not applicable
    Lifecycle Phase Not applicable
    Not applicable Recipe Number
    Not applicable Recipe Version
    Organization Organization
    Based on Rollup Not applicable
    Category Not applicable
    Level Not applicable
    Revision Not applicable
    Unit of Measure Unit of Measure
    Current and Simulated Unit Cost Current and Simulated Unit Cost
    Percentage Cost Change---If the current cost is 0, then this value cannot be mathematically calculated and a blank cell will appear in the spreadsheet. Same as Discrete
    Currency Code Not applicable
    Quantity: On Hand, WIP, Intransit Quantity: On Hand, WIP, Intransit
    Current Value: On Hand, WIP, Intransit Current Value: On Hand, WIP, Intransit
    Simulated Value: On Hand, WIP, Intransit Simulated Value: On Hand, WIP, Intransit

  2. You can select the following functions in the In-Memory Cost Management ribbon:

    • Member Selection to choose a previous simulation to display on the spreadsheet.

    • Zoom In to navigate to the View Detail page, and Zoom Out to return to the View Summary page.

    • Calculate Gross Profit to run a required background process for viewing the Gross Profit Analyzer dashboard, see: Background Processes

    • Launch Gross Profit Analyzer to display the dashboard after running the required background process and view the impact of the simulation just created on COGS and margins, see: Overview of Analyzing Gross Profits

    • Cost Compare to navigate to the Cost Comparison page for selected items in the current simulation. This will launch the cost comparison of the item where the cursor is placed between the simulation and the basis cost type. See: Searching, and Viewing Costs for Comparisons

To view cost simulation details

  1. Navigate to the View Detail page. You can:

    • Select various component level details of the selected assembly and Zoom In to see details of the components.

    • View the indented cost structure of the assembly you selected for Zoom In.

    • Zoom Out from the top assembly to navigate back to the View Summary page.

    Discrete Industries

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    Process Industries

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    Information displays in the following columns:

    Discrete Process
    Item Same as Discrete
    Level: Bill of material level Same as Discrete
    Operation sequence number Not applicable
    Organization Same as Discrete
    Source Organization Same as Discrete
    Not applicable Source Organization Percentage
    Department Not applicable
    Cost Element Not applicable
    Not applicable Recipe: Information includes the sequencing of ingredients and processing instructions
    Subelement: Cost subelement or resource name Not applicable
    Not applicable Step: Operations or stages in the manufacturing cycle
    Qty Per Assembly: Bill of material component quantity per assembly Not applicable
    Not applicable Component Class Code: Identifies the cost component to be applied to the percentage overhead
    Resource Usage Rate Per Assembly Not applicable
    Not applicable Analysis Code: Codes used to group component costs from multiple cost component class types, providing a more granular tracking of costs.
    Rate or Amount: Resource or Overhead rate or amount Same as Discrete
    Not applicable Formula Quantity
    Not applicable Scrap Factor
    Not applicable Resource Usage: Equipment or labor used in production multiplied by charges.
    Simulated values Same as Discrete
    Current Item Cost Same as Discrete
    Revision Not applicable
    Not applicable Description
    Basis Not applicable
    Not applicable Formula: Statement of ingredient requirements and planned product yield
    Currency Code Same as Discrete
    Not applicable Formula Quantity/Resource Usage Unit of Measure
    UOM: Unit of Measure Not applicable
    Not applicable Scale Type: The proportional or disproportional increase or decrease of product, byproduct, or ingredient quantities in a formula or batch.
    Shrink Basis Factor Not applicable
    Not applicable Routing: A sequenced set of operations to perform to complete a production batch.
    Not applicable Routing Quantity
    Phantom Not applicable
    Make or Buy Not applicable
    Not applicable Routing Unit of Measure
    Included in Rollup Same as Discrete
    Based on Rollup Not applicable
    Extended Quantity or Rate/Amount Not applicable
    Not applicable Operation
    Inventory Asset Costed. Not applicable
    Not applicable Step Quantity
    Not applicable Step Quantity Unit of Measure
    Not applicable Process Quantity
    Not applicable Process Quantity Unit of Measure
    Not applicable Resource Count
    Not applicable Activity Factor
    Error: A detailed line level error message appears if you update a simulation and the program does not process. Same as Discrete

  2. To create a new simulation for particular components, resource usage rates, and user defined cost of an item or resource rates; change the value and select Simulate.

    See: Modifying Cost Simulation Results

To display a previously created simulation

  1. Navigate to the View Summary page.

  2. In the Simulation Code field for the simulation just created, enter the value of a previous simulation.

    You can use Member Selection to search for values of previous simulations using the following values:

    • Simulation Code

    • Simulation by Date

    • Simulation by Description

    • Simulation by User

    See: Using the Member Selector

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  3. Select Load Values.

    This populates the current values of the Inventory, WIP and In Transit for the impacted items in the basis cost type; and also populates the corresponding values for the simulation. You can then compare the values side by side.

Modifying Cost Simulation Results

You can test and update simulations from the results displaying on the View Detail page by modifying cost values and running the Simulation Calculation script again. The Update Simulation program does the following:

Any simulation code can be removed using Purge Simulation background process, see: Background Processes

To modify cost simulation details

  1. On the View Detail page, for either the Discrete or Process application, select the costs you want to change.

    You can update the quantity, rate or amount, and unit cost for the following entities as shown in the following table:

    Entity Qty/Rate or Amount Unit Cost
    Component Yes No
    Resource Yes Yes
    Overhead No Yes
    Outside processing (OSP) Yes Yes
    Material No Yes
    Material Overhead (for Discrete only) No Yes

  2. Select Simulate to display the Update Simulation dialog box.

  3. Choose Launch.

  4. After the simulation successfully processes, choose Close.

    The View Detail page refreshes with values based on the new modified values entered.

Related Topics

Creating Cost Simulations

Viewing Cost Simulation Summaries and Details