USER MANUAL

If SMI is used and the supplier is of the supplier type The following supplier types exist: - Has PipeChain Supply: The supplier has his/her own installation of PipeChain Supply. - Has No PipeChain Supply: The supplier does not use PipeChain. - Has Web Access to This PipeChain Supply: The supplier uses PipeChain WebAccess to connect to your PipeChain Supply. - Purchasing: The "supplier" in question is a purchasing department in your own company. - Production: The "supplier" in question is a production department in your own company “Has WebAccess to this PipeChain Supply”, PipeChain Supply will create delivery suggestions automatically.

If SMI is used and the supplier is of the supplier type “Has Own PipeChain Supply”, the supplier’s PipeChain Supply will create delivery suggestions automatically.

If SMI is not used and the supplier is of the supplier type “Has Own PipeChain Supply”, “Has WebAccess to this PipeChain Supply”, “Production” or “Purchasing”, PipeChain Supply will create delivery suggestions automatically for this supplier and product.

Figure: Product Supersession dialog.

In this dialog you can create a new supersession. Fill out the new product identifiers (the product that will replace the old one). When the new product id should start to be valid from and if the changeover should be soft, firm or substitution. The soft and firm strategies will re-route the demand to this new product but substitute is consuming another products stock when the parent product is zero and when transaction XX is processed.

Soft and Firm Product Supersession

When the Valid from date is yesterday or older (if the strategy is soft there should also not be any remaining stock) the delivery agreement and customer buckets will be updated to the new own product in the night background job "Database Consistency Check".

In the Outbound Deliveries tab in the Customer Bucket Detail screen the own product identifiers can be seen in separate columns. These may be different is a Supersession is being performed.

Note!! If you have defined a Safety Balance for the Inbound Agreement to the Own Bucket and only one customer is using the old product PipeChain Supply aim to have the Safety Balance in stock at the end of the Supersession. It is in this case vital that you remove the Safety Balance in this Inbound Agreement well in advance.

If you are using the Supersession strategy "soft" PipeChain Supply use this Safety Balance in the next delivery suggestion generation. This will create a new inbound delivery to have Safety Balance again after this new delivery. This will create an "endless" loop resulting in that the product is not phased out in practice.

This tab specifies how the product is to be delivered.

Strategy – this list box displays which replenishment strategy is used in this delivery agreement. There are two strategies, Bucket and Transport.

The Bucket replenishment strategy - Every time a delivery takes place the supplier replenishes as much as possible, within the scope of the agreement. This strategy minimizes the number of shipments needed, while making sure that you always have enough goods. Bucket Strategy is one of PipeChain Supply’s two replenishment strategies. The other one is Transport Strategy (see below). The Transport Strategy is especially suited for big flows.

The Transport replenishment strategy - Minimizes your stock and (may) increase the number of shipments. The "good" thing with this strategy is that it evens out the flow of goods. The "bad" thing is that it increases the number of transports. Shipments are made according to a fixed transport schedule. Each shipment contains just enough goods to last you until the next shipment arrives (+ Safety Time). Therefore a production plan or forecast is required. Transport Strategy is one of PipeChain Supply's two replenishment strategies. The other one is Bucket Strategy (see above)

- Stock Level Control -

Critical Time - The stock level you want your duration meter to turn red at. Should, if used, be considerably less than the Safety Time (or else your meter will never be yellow since the duration meter is turning red directly after is has been yellow). We strongly recommend the usage of Critical Time. If left undefined, the Lead Time will be used as Critical Time. This could be the time it takes 1/ to get goods from another supplier, 2/ to receive an express delivery or 3/ to reschedule the production.

Total Lead Time - Is the sum of Transport Lead Time and Production Lead Time is showing in this field. If editing the Transport Lead Time or Production Lead Time field with a value the Total Lead Time is automatically updated with the same value.

Transport Lead Time - The time it takes from the moment the supplier ships the delivery in PipeChain until it is received, registered and shows up in the customer's stock balance. The Lead Time is only used if the Reception Schedule is of Schedule Type = Reception Days. If it is not, then the Lead Time is only for information purposes. For optimum reasons the Lead Time should always be considerably less than Max Time –Safety Time .

Production Lead Time - The normal delivery time measured from receipt of order until item is shipped by the seller in the case where the product is not in stock.

Total Lead Time - Is the sum of Transport Lead Time and Production Lead Time. If editing the field directly with a value the Production Lead Time is automatically updated with the same value.

Safety Time - The minimum stock cover time for which you want to have a stock of this product. You decide what the Safety Time should be based on the stability of deliveries and sales, and on the quality of the information covering balance and demand.

Max Time - The maximum stock cover time you want to have stock of a certain product.

Safety Balance - The fixed quantity below which you do not want the stock balance of the product to fall, even if there is no demand of the product. The safety balance overrides the Safety Time. By setting a Safety Balance you make sure that you always have a certain quantity in stock. To make the supply process as smooth as possible, we do not recommend setting a Safety Balance unless it is absolutely necessary.

Max Balance - Is a fixed quantity above which your stock balance of the product must not rise, no matter what the outflow is. The Max Balance overrides the Max Time. Example: a tank that can hold only 1000 liters cannot stock any more liters. We do not recommend setting a Max Balance unless there is a definite physical limit to how much of the product you can store!

Green Balance / Source. The Green Balance is the Balance level under which the Duration Meter should not turn blue. It is aimed to be used for minimizing the number of blue meter due to for instance rounding up to the minimum delivery quantity. The Green Balance can be defined as a value (Fixed) or as the Delivery Unit Quantity or the Multi Unit Quantity. If either if the two last options are used the field will show the current quantity.

- Delivery Quantities -

Min Delivery Quantity - This is the minimum quantity that a delivery can contain. If PipeChain calculates that you need a smaller quantity, the quantity of the delivery will be set to the Min Delivery Quantity.

Multi Unit Quantity - The checkbox is checked if the product is delivered in units of more than one product (e.g. pallet or case). The quantity of the product contained in each multi unit is specified in the field to the right of the checkbox. Delivery quantities are always rounded upwards to the nearest multi unit.

Delivery Unit

- Reception Schedule -

Reception Schedule Id - The Id of the Reception Schedule.

If you are using the Transport strategy (see 2 above), you have to use a reception schedule, and that schedule has to be of the “transport times” type.

If you are using the Bucket strategy (see 2 above) and do not select a reception schedule , your Template Reception Schedule will be used. The Template Reception Schedule is set in the Own Business screen.

Send Delivery Suggestions – with this list box, you can choose how delivery suggestions are to be sent to the order system:

- As specified in the Own Business Screen

- Manual Sending

- Automatic Sending

- Automatic Sending and Change

Analyze – when you click this button, PipeChain Supply analyzes the agreement to see if the values are well adapted to the customer’s outflow etc. The result is shown in a dialog box as soon as the analysis is complete. This can usually take a few seconds.

Figure. Dialog box showing the result of analyzing a delivery agreement.

The customer can tie the delivery agreement to a blanket purchase order in their order system. This tab shows you the details of the customer’s blanket order.

Blanket Order – if Not Used is selected, no blanket purchase order is used, even if one is specified in the list of blanket orders below (2-4). If Scheduled is selected, a blanket order is used. It is specified in the list below (2-4).

Valid From Date – the date from which the blanket order is valid. You can define more than one order that all have different Valid From dates. When your PipeChain Supply creates a delivery suggestion, it uses the blanket order with the nearest “Valid From” date that is in the past.

Purchase Order Id – the reference number of the blanket order in the customer’s purchase system.

Purchase Order Line Id – the line number of the blanket order in the customer’s purchase system.

In the three fields in the Order Text tab, you can enter data that is needed by your order system, such as order type, cost center etc. Whenever a new outbound delivery is sent as an order line to your order system, the information you have entered in the Order Text tab is transferred to your order system.

Whenever a new suggestion is sent to the order system the information you have entered in the Order Text tab is transferred to your order system.

In the nine Order Boolean, Decimal and Integer fields in the Order Data tab, you can enter data, such as order type, cost center etc that is needed by your purchasing system and/or the supplier’s order system, if the supplier is not using their own PipeChain Supply. These fields are not sent in the standard Order transactions but can be used for integration via converters.

Generation of Suggestions

Set delivery to status Forecast - determines if the suggestion generation should create delivery suggestions with status Forecast instead of with status Suggestion. Delivery suggestions in status Forecast can not be used to create deliveries or orders by the supplier.

- Sending of Suggestions -

Send Delivery Suggestions - Default value is "As Specified in the Own Business Screen". If this alterative is used the Own Business sending strategy will be displayed in the field to the right. You can override this central sending strategy by changing the drop-down box.

Auto send lower limit - If used suggestion below this limit will not automatically be sent to the order system by PipeChain.

Auto send upper limit - If used suggestion above this limit will not automatically be sent to the order system by PipeChain.

Suggestions outside the above limits will be set to the status On Hold. If a suggestion is On Hold and is within the Confirmation Margin it will not get sent to the order system in the sending process. Instead a message will be produced and put into the message log.
Suggestions that are On Hold will not be shown in the Flow Model type "From Outbound Deliveries".

-Backlog-

Compensate for Backlog During Lead Time - If Flow Meter or Sales Forecast (and no other strategy is used) is used, and there is an expected backlog in the future – before the next reception – PipeChain can either takes this into account or not. The box should be checked to compensate if back orders are normally used in a situation like this. Do not check the box if sales of this product is lost at stockouts.

- Confirmation Margin -

Strategy for Confirmation Margin - The Confirmation Margin can be supplied on Partner agreement level or Delivery Agreement level.

The limit date for confirmation called Delivery Preparation Time (DPT) are now calculated by subtracting the sum of production lead time and confirmation margin from the delivery shipment time (ST), The suppliers calendar is used when calculating DPT. The DPT affects the severity (Color) on Shipment Time and when deliveries are sent automatically to ERP system. The attribute Lead Time is now renamed to Transport Lead Time (TLT). A production Time (PT) is also displayed in deliveries and suggestion screens but only if production lead time is greater than 0.

Lead Times: CM PLT TLT

--------------|----------------|-------------------|--------------------|

DPT PT ST RT (ReceptionTime)

- Reports -

-Taxes-

Used in the WebShop

Tax Rate - Tax value is used in the WebShop. Must be set between 0 and 100%.

-RFQ Strategy-

RFQ Strategy - Request for quotation - when used settings in the agreement decides the behavior of the system, i.e. to send Email to the system administration and Email to the user.

Choose no request for quotation, request for quotation and use the partner agreement setting.

- Delivery Schedule Config -

Only used when using the WebShop Module.

Each PriceRange defines a Minimum Quantity and/or Maximum Quantity and a Price Per Unit.

Each agreement may have one or more price ranges (but they may not overlap.

Price per UnitPriceBase. The price displayed to the user will be the Price Per UnitPriceBase + the UnitPriceBase

Number of Units that the Price is for. Default is 1 Unit.

(A special screen with Price Ranges will be available to make manual maintenance more convenient.)

Outbound Delivery Agreement Detail