Overview of Simulations for Replenishment Plans

Use plan simulations to quickly perform what-if simulations, improve your replenishment plan's performance, resolve supply issues, or improve projected fill rates. When you're satisfied with a simulated outcome, you can manually release planned orders with your changes.

Types of Simulations for Replenishment Plans

This table explains the types of simulations that you can perform for your replenishment plan:

Type of Simulation	Explanation	Location Where Simulation Is Performed
Simulations for policy parameters	You perform these simulations for segments of the segment group that's attached to your replenishment plan. You can identify policy parameter alternatives that maximize your replenishment plan's performance.	Use the Manage Policy Assignments table for the replenishment plan. If you're satisfied with your changes, you can save them to the policy assignment set that's attached to your replenishment plan for future use.
Simulations for policy values	You perform these simulations for item-location combinations of the segment group that's attached to your replenishment plan. You can identify policy value alternatives that maximize your replenishment plan's performance.	To simulate changes for all buckets within your planning horizon, use the Manage Policy Parameters by Item table for the replenishment plan. To simulate changes for specific buckets within your planning horizon, use the Replenishment Workbench table for the replenishment plan.
Simulations for supplies and demands	You perform these simulations for item-location combinations by adding or modifying supplies and demands. After changing quantities and dates, you can compare your baseline and simulated replenishment plans.	To simulate changes for all buckets within your planning horizon, use the Supplies and Demands table for the replenishment plan. To simulate changes for specific buckets within your planning horizon, use the Replenishment Workbench table for the replenishment plan.
Simulations for item attributes	You perform these simulations by changing item attributes of item-location combinations for the segment group that's attached to your replenishment plan. You can simulate changes to lead times and order modifiers to resolve supply-related issues such as stockouts. You can also modify costs, lead times, service-level percentages, and overrides for the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for policy and projected fill rate simulations.	Use the Items table for the replenishment plan. If you're satisfied with your changes, you can optionally save them to a simulation set for future use.
Simulations for inventory rebalancing	You perform these simulations by making changes to the planned orders generated after inventory rebalancing of your replenishment plan. You can change the firm dates and quantities and shipping methods. You can also create a planned order of the transfer type.	Use the Manage Rebalancing Recommendations table for the replenishment plan. Your firm planned orders aren't retained the next time you run the replenishment plan with the Refresh with current data option selected on the Parameters tab in the Run Plan dialog box.

To perform a simulation, you run your replenishment plan by selecting the Do not refresh with current data option on the Parameters tab in the Run Plan dialog box. Only the following are replanned:

• Item-location combinations for segments whose policy parameters are changed

• Item-location combinations whose policy values, supplies and demands, and item attributes are changed

• The locations in different clusters for the items for which rebalancing recommendations are changed

After you're satisfied with the results of your simulation, you can manually release planned orders.

Note these points about how simulation works with other features for Oracle Replenishment Planning:

• If you enable your replenishment plan for end item substitution and supersession, if you simulate a change to the policy parameters, policy values, supplies and demands, or attributes for an item-location combination, the entire substitution or supersession chain is replanned.
• During simulation for a multiechelon replenishment plan, if you make a change for an item, it's replanned at all echelons. A bottom-up pass for unconstrained planning and a top-down pass for constrained planning are performed.

  If you simulate a change to an item that's a part of a substitution or supersession chain, the entire chain is replanned at all echelons. A bottom-up pass for unconstrained planning and a top-down pass for constrained planning are performed.

Replan by Individual Planners

In your simulation plan, simulations are restricted to the changes done by individual replenishment planners.

This functionality is useful when a replenishment plan has subsets of item-location combinations that are managed by different replenishment planners, and they must often run simulations while resolving issues such as stockouts in storerooms or demand increases caused by promotions at retail outlets. The functionality enables you to identify inputs that change replenishment plan results, work in parallel with other replenishment planners without affecting their changes, and quickly and reliably run simulations.

For example, if you and another replenishment planner are individually changing item attributes, supplies and demands, policy parameters for segments, and policy parameter overrides for segments and item-location combinations, when you run a simulation by selecting Do not refresh with current data on the Parameters tab in the Run Plan dialog box, only your changes are simulated, and those made by the other replenishment planner aren't considered. Later, when the other replenishment planner runs a simulation, only the changes made by that user are simulated, and your changes aren't considered.

Further, by using the Manage Replan Details dialog box that you open from the Parameters tab in the Run Plan dialog box, you can select which of your changes you want to simulate.