1. Using Supply Planning
  2. Manage Notes in Supply Chain Planning

Manage Notes in Supply Chain Planning

Use Notes in Supply Chain Planning to document and communicate important information about your plan.

You can use notes to provide reasons for any changes made to a plan or to record decisions and assumptions that led to those changes. You can save these notes for future reference or to provide details to other users. Participants in the plan management process can annotate the data with notes to document changes and assumptions.

The notes functionality is available in the Demand Management, Supply Planning, Planning Central, and Sales and Operations work areas. You can create notes for the following:

  • Plans

  • Planning level members, such as items, organization, and customers

  • Planning combinations, such as a specific item-organization-date-measure combination

  • Exceptions

When you create a note, you must specify a note type. Note types enable notes to be categorized, which you can use as search criteria. The following lists the predefined note types:

  • General

  • Assumption

  • Decision

  • Issue

  • Possibility

  • Risk

  • Reference

  • Special

You also specify whether the note is private or public. Private notes are visible only to the user who created the note. Public notes are visible to all the users with whom the object is associated.

From the Demand Management or the Sales and Operations work area, you can access the Notes table to display planning level members for Product hierarchies. You can create a layout to view the Notes table as part of the layout instead of as a dialog box. The Notes table is not available for Supply Planning or Planning Central.

Notes for Plans

You can create notes for plans. When you copy a plan, any notes associated with the plan are copied into the new plan.

To create a note for a plan, do the following:

  1. Open the Plan Options page for your plan, and click the Manage Notes icon.

  2. In the Manage Notes dialog box, click Actions > Create.

  3. In the Create Note dialog box, add your notes.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Click Save and Close.

Notes for Planning Level Members

You can associate notes with planning-level members, such as items, organizations, and customers. You can create notes at any level of the hierarchy, such as on an individual item, on a brand, or on a product category.

Notes that you create on planning level members at lower levels in the hierarchy are visible when you open Manage Notes from an aggregate level. Notes that you create on level members aren't plan-specific. This means that a note associated with a level member is visible from any plan that contains that member.

To create a note on a level member, select the level member, and select Create Note from the Actions menu.

To view, edit, or delete an existing note, select the level member, and select Manage Notes from the Actions menu.

Notes for Planning Combinations

You can associate notes for the planning combinations, such as a specific item, organization, date, and measure combination. Planning combinations appear as cells within a table.

You can create a note at any level; however, they are only visible at the level at which they are created. For example, if you create a note at a brand, month, and measure combination, you can't view that note at the item, day, and measure level.

If you copy a plan, then any plan-specific notes on planning combinations are also copied.

To create a note for the planning combinations, do the following:

  1. Select the cell in the table.

  2. Select Create Note from the Actions menu.

  3. Add your notes.

  4. Click Save and Close.

To view, edit or delete an existing note on a planning combination, do the following:

  1. Select the Note icon from the table's cell level.

  2. Select Manage Notes from the Actions menu.

Note: If you create a note on a planning combination, and the associated measure is shared across plans, then the note isn't plan-specific. In this case, the note is visible across all plans. If you create a note on a planning combination, and the associated measure isn't shared across plans, then the note is plan-specific. In this case, the note is visible within the plan in which you created it.

Notes for Exceptions

You can associate notes with exceptions. Notes on exceptions persist across plan runs. If an exception still exists after a plan is run again, then any notes associated with the exception are retained. When an exception is resolved, the exception is removed from the application. In that case, any notes associated with the exception are also removed.

To create notes for an exception, do the following:

  1. Click the Note icon on the table row of the exception.

  2. Add your notes.

  3. Click Save and Close.