The Product Chaining page enables the inheritance of historical demand trends from a product. It applies the demand trend to one or more products which may be planned to replace the existing product, in part or completely, to support demand planning of the ‘to product’.
Create a new chain
Select the customer and product data to display from the context selectors in the top-right of the page. Both selector fields give options for both hierarchies at all levels. You can select the required options from the lists or manually enter the reference ID where known.
You can retain the demand history for continued demand planning of the ‘from product' or disregard it if the demand is to be transferred to other products, as would be the case in product discontinuation. Use this page to create, edit, and delete product chains.
Steps
To create a new product chain:
- Select the Create New Chain button.
- Select the parent product for the new chain. The selected product appears as a new chain row in the Edit Items table. The From Product and Inherit fields are highlighted in pink to notify that the record is available to complete the additional settings.
Additional information
Customer chaining isn't currently possible.
Product splitting
If an old product is to be replaced by more than one new product, then create multiple chains and manage the inheritance % to accommodate the change.
Pack size changes
If the old and new products are the same item but in a different pack size, use the inheritance and depletion % values to manage this. For example, if the old product was a 72-count case, and the new product is a 36-count case, then you would inherit 200% and deplete 100%.
What gets chained
Chaining specifically acts on sales history data. It doesn't facilitate remapping other data (forecast archives, inventory, purchase orders, and so on) from one product to another.
Edit Items
This table is used to create, edit, delete, enable, or disable existing product chains.
Parameters
| Parameters | Values |
| To Product | Products which inherit the demand trend. One or more products may inherit demand. |
| From Product | The product from which the demand trend is inherited. |
| Start Date | The initial date from which the demand trend is inherited. |
| End Date | The final date to which the demand trend inheritance will run. If left blank, then the end date will default to the end date specified in the D1000 - Global Demand Parameters page. |
| Inheritance (%) | Enter a value in this field to set the demand ratio of the From Product to be inherited by the To Product. The demand may be apportioned to multiple products, and the sum of the assumed values can exceed 100% to enable planning in anticipation of an increased demand. |
| Deplete Source? | Check this box to have the To Product assume the demand from the From Product value. Leave the box unchecked to keep the demand in From Product. This confirms the demand in To Product and is treated as additional demand rather than substitution demand. |
| Depletion (%) | Sets a depletion percentage. This value determines the proportion of the From Product demand to reduce because of chaining demand to the two products. |
| Effective | Check this box to enable demand inheritance. Leave the box unchecked to prevent inheritance from being carried out by the system. |
| Delete? | Select to delete a product chain, then select the Delete Chain button. |
Additional information
Usually, you want to deplete 100% of the From Product. Otherwise, you are at risk of inflating historical volumes. There may be edge cases where this may not be true. For example, a 36-count pack is introduced in addition to an existing 72-count pack, and you expected 50% of the volumes to move to the 36-count. Then, you would inherit 100% and deplete 50%.
Delete a chain
Steps
To delete an existing chain:
- In the Edit Items table, select the Delete? checkbox for one or more product chains you want to delete.
- Select the Delete Chain button on the right-hand side.
- In the Delete Chain dialog select Run Process.
Additional information
If you want to keep a record of the product chain, disable the Effective checkbox to leave the chain record in place and disable its impact.
Inheritance by Source Graph
This graph displays demand of the 'from product' to be inherited by the 'to product'.
Product Chaining Impact Graph and Product Chaining Audit Table
This graph and table display the product chaining impact on the 'to product'.
| Parameters | Values |
| Selected History (U) | The actual shipment history for the ‘to product’. |
| Depleted History (U) | If depletion is selected in the parameters, then this shows the values that are depleted from the 'from product'. |
| Inherited History (U) | This value is the inherited history driven from the ‘from product’. |
| Chained History (U) | The sum of Selected History (U) and Inherited History (U). |
