Demand Channels

Demand sources can be assigned to a specific channel based on a set of criteria.

Channels can represent any desired way to segregate demand—business units, customer classifications, demand sources (web, EDI, phone), etc.

The Demand Channels configuration page allows you to create and manage these channels, which are leveraged in the channel assignment process to assign demand to a channel.

You can configure which demand channels should be evaluated and in what order they should be evaluated for assignment on the Reservation Priorities page.

New or Edit Demand Channel

Click New to create a demand channel. Click Edit to edit an existing demand channel.

FIELD	DESCRIPTION

FIELD	DESCRIPTION
Name	Name of the demand channel.
Description	Description of the demand channel.
Processing Order	Controls the order in which reservation is run over the demand within this channel: FIFO: Process by order creation date/time (only for sales and transfer orders). Profit Margin: Process highest margin to lowest (only for sales orders). Ship Date: Process in ship date order.
Enabled	Turn on this toggle to enable the demand channel for processing.
Effective Start Date	Start date/time for this demand channel.
Lead Days to Evaluate	Number of days to look forward for demand to reserve based on ship date.
Effective End Date	Expiration date/time for this demand channel.
Past Days to Evaluate	Number of days to look back for demand to reserve based on ship date.
Attributes	Click New to add attributes to this demand channel. See Attributes - Orchestrate to configure these attributes.

Delete Demand Channel

Select the desired record and click Delete to delete a demand channel.

Click OK on the confirmation pop-up window to confirm the deletion.

Additional Configurations

Budgets

The Budgets page allows you to create budgets for demand channels.

These budgets help define how much product inventory should be reserved within the channel.

Once a channel budget is reached for a given timeframe and scope, reservation will not be allowed.

Sustainability: Stabilize Inventory

Limit the amount of inventory customers can order to avoid ordering either too much or too often.

See Sustainability with Supply Chain Cloud for more information.

Click Budgets on a demand channel line to configure budget details.

You should see the selected demand channel at the top of the page, along with several buttons.

Create or Edit Budget

Click New to create a budget. Click Edit to edit a budget.

This opens a pop-up window where you can enter budget details.

FIELD	DESCRIPTION

FIELD	DESCRIPTION
Name	Enter a name for the budget.
Description	Enter a description for the budget.
Budget Item Group	Select the budget item group for the demand channel budget. This budget will affect any items that belong to this budget item group for the selected channel. Note If there are multiple items in the budget group, the budget quantity corresponds to the sum of those items, not each one individually.
Site	Enter the site for this budget (if desired).
Warehouse	Enter the warehouse for this budget (if desired).
Scope	Select the level at which the budget will be tracked: Total Channel: The maximum a channel can reserve within the timeframe. Customer: The maximum a specific customer can allocate. Attribute: Where a demand line includes the specified attribute, that demand line counts toward the maximum reservation amount for that attribute.
Budget Quantity	Enter the maximum number of units allowed to be reserved. If a budget quantity is exceeded for a demand line, no further inventory is allocated.
Active	Turn on this toggle to enable the budget.
Unlimited Budget	Turn on this toggle to ignore the Budget Quantity field and allow unlimited reservations. Note This is useful for clients that want to track the amount of inventory for the budget, but do not have any constraints on that budget.
Prevent Partial Order Line Reservation	Turn on this toggle to prevent an order line from being partially reserved if the total demand line amount exceeds the budget. When turned off, if the budget quantity is exceeded, inventory is allocated even if it does not fulfill the entire line.

Delete Budget

Select the desired record and click Delete to delete a budget.

Click OK on the confirmation pop-up window to confirm the deletion.

Budget Recurrence

Click this button to configure a recurrence for the highlighted record.

Note

Each budget can only have one recurrence set up.

You can determine how often the budget record is restarted for budget tracking purposes.

If no recurrence is configured, the budget is always tracking.

FIELD	DESCRIPTION

FIELD	DESCRIPTION
Start Date	Enter the date the budget takes effect.
End by	If you select this option. select the date the budget should end.
End after number of occurrences	If you select this option, select the number of times the budget should run.
Pattern	Daily: Set to an integer determining how many days the budget will recur. Weekly: Either set to an integer determining how many weeks the budget will recur or select which day(s) of the weeks it will recur on. Monthly: Either set which day of the month the budget will recur on, or select the first, second, third, fourth, or last weekday (Sunday-Saturday) in the month. Yearly: Either set an integer of years for the budget to recur on, or select the first, second, third, fourth, or last weekday (Sunday-Saturday) of a month in the year.

Safety Nets

You can set up safety nets to allow inventory to be withheld and "soft reserved" to a demand channel when there is no demand to consume it.

This is useful when you want stock available in case an order for that channel comes in because it has a high priority.

The "soft reservation" to a channel is only in relation to a particular reservation run. If multiple channels are being processed in a reservation run, safety nets are applied based on the sequence in which channels are evaluated during reservation processing.

Example

If Channel 1 has a safety net of 25 units, then when the Channel 2 reservation runs, the 25 "soft allocated" Channel 1 units are not available for reservation.

Sustainability: Stabilize Inventory

Mitigate risk around urgent orders by keeping inventory on-hand instead of expediting to fulfill requests.

See Sustainability with Supply Chain Cloud for more information.

Click Safety Nets on a demand channel line to configure safety nets.

You should see the selected demand channel at the top of the page, along with several buttons.

Create or Edit Safety Net

Click New to create a safety net. Click Edit to edit a safety net.

This opens a pop-up window where you can enter safety net details.

FIELD	DESCRIPTION

FIELD	DESCRIPTION
Name	Enter a new for the safety net.
Description	Enter a description for the safety net.
Budget Item Group	Select the budget item group for the demand channel safety net. This safety net will affect any items that belong to this budget item group for the selected channel. Note If there are multiple items in the budget group, the safety net quantity corresponds to the sum of those items, not each one individually.
Active	Turn on this toggle to enable the safety net.
Site	Enter the site for this safety net record (if desired).
Warehouse	Enter the warehouse for this safety net record (if desired).
Safety Net Calculation	Select how the safety net value calculates: Number of Units: Safety Net Value is treated directly as a number of units. Percentage of Physical Availability: Safety Net Value is treated as a calculated number of units based on a configured percentage of inventory available.
Safety Net Value	If using the Number of Units calculation method, indicates the number of UOMs to use as a safety net. If using the Percentage of Physical Availability calculation method, indicates a percentage of inventory to keep available.
Allow Safety Net to Surpass Budget	Turn on this toggle to allow the "soft allocated" safety net to exceed the remaining budgeted amount for the channel. If turned off, the safety net cannot exceed the budget.
Excess Safety Net Amount	Designates by much the budget can be exceeded.

Delete Safety Net

Select the desired record and click Delete to delete a safety net.

Click OK on the confirmation pop-up window to confirm the deletion.