APM Setting Configuration

Menu > Advanced Planning Module > Simulation Settings (Gear Icon)

APM Configuration is important for the initial set up of the APM, but can be rerun manually with different settings for any simulation run. It is best to start with an agreed upon set of simulation settings and monitor changes within the management team.

Planners should not have the permissions to run the APM. Only management level positions should have the ability to modify the APM configurations, and even then they should be careful to discuss all potential changes with the team.

Accessing the Simulation Settings

To set up the simulation settings for the APM, select the gear icon in the upper left hand corner of the APM screen. You will need the APM Administrator permission to be able to view this gear icon.

Setting Definitions

Once you have clicked the gear icon, you will see the Advanced Planning Module (APM) tab, which contains the APM simulation settings. You will not need the RCCP settings if you are setting up an APM run.

Your team will need to decide the best setting for your standard simulation runs. Use the definitions below to guide your set up.

APM Last Run

This is the last time that the APM was run. This setting may lag slightly if you check this setting immediately after running a simulation. To ensure this run time is always up-to-date after a run, refresh your screen before accessing the settings again.

Automatically keep Simulation up to date?

"ON": Any changes made within R+, will initiate an update and recalculation of the Simulation for affected parts. There are also several scenarios that will cause the APM to rerun the Simulation.

• Default calendar changes from a 5-day week to a 7-day week.

• Any key part attributes that are updated in R+.

• Importation jobs into R+, from the client’s ERP system.

Keeping the Simulation automatically up to date is resource-intensive and may affect system performance. The recommendation is to update the Simulation manually in large scale deployments of R+.

"OFF": The APM will not automatically run and must be launched manually.

Starting Date

If the "Automatically keep Simulation up to date?" setting is turned ON, you will select the day of the week that the simulation will start from each time it runs. The stating date of the simulation run will be that day of the week in the current week.

If the "Automatically keep Simulation up to date?" setting is turned OFF, you will select the starting date of the simulation run. This will be the start date of the results in the simulation. This does NOT schedule the APM to run on this date. The date can be in the future or the past, as long as there is data in the system to support the timing of the run.

Allow Demand on Non-Working days

If selected to ON, then the APM will spread the forecast across all days and ignore non-working days identified in the calendar. If selected to OFF, then R+ will move the demand on a non-working day to the next available working day. If you are simulating the APM in your typical working environment, you will typically want this setting "OFF".

Include Order Spikes for Buffered Parts

This setting will either allow or disallow the Order Spike functionality in the projected Net Flows in the APM results. If ON, order spikes will respect the part’s current buffer spike horizon and threshold throughout the simulation. If OFF, no demand will be considered as an order spike, even if it typically would be on the Workbench.

Location(s) to Simulate

You can select which location(s) the Simulation should run. The APM is location-aware and is configurable for one or more locations. The APM will only generate results for those locations selected and will not change any of the existing data or generate new data for other locations.

Weeks to Simulate

The number of weeks of results generated by the simulation run. This setting is configurable for up to 78 weeks.

Daily Usage Horizon

This is the number of weeks of forecast data that will generate the Forecasted Daily Usage (FDU) for the APM Simulation. This is also the number of weeks over which the alert in the Daily Usage Report will be considered.

This does NOT change the FDU value associated with the part record within R+. The value in the part record will reflect the weeks of the horizon in the Site Administration Processing tab for Weeks of Forecasted Demand. This setting will be aligned to the daily usage horizon setting for the R+ instance.

APM FDU Calculation

The FDU Calculation in the APM is slightly different than the FDU calculation on the Workbench. It is important to be aware of the difference when the values appear to differ despite similar settings.

The Workbench FDU calculation (the one in the Properties tab) is calculated this way:

(Sum of Weekly Forecasted Demand Values in the FDU Horizon / Number of Working Days in the FDU Horizon) where the sum of weekly demand starts with next week's forecasted weekly demand (not the value in the current week).

The APM FDU calculation (the one in the Daily Usage Report) is calculated this way:

(Sum of Simulated Daily Demand in the Daily Usage Horizon / Number of Working Days in the Daily Usage Horizon) where the sum of daily demand starts with the simulated demand on the next working day.

Demand Realized on (DoW?)

This setting determines which day of the week the APM will use to realize the forecasted demand for that week. If the user sets this value as of Monday, then the entire weekly demand forecast will be considered as due on Monday. If set to Spread Evenly, then depending on the location calendar setting, the weekly forecasted demand will be divided by the number of working days in that week and spread evenly across the week.

Only Spread Over Days After Starting Date

When this setting is turned ON and the demand is "Spread Evenly", the weekly demand value will be divided by the number of working days in the week, regardless of which day the simulation was run on, and only the resulting daily demand for the week will appear in the simulation. This setting assumes that some of the projected demand has already been fulfilled earlier in the week.

When this setting is turned OFF and the demand is "Spread Evenly", the weekly demand value will divided by the number of remaining days in the week after the Starting Date and spread across those days to meet the full quantity of projected demand in that week.

Default Alert Values for the APM:

Three of the reports in the APM have alerts on them. Each alert draws attention to future situations in which you could have spikes or drops in demand, potential stock outs, or potential promotion events that need to be addressed. Each alert box determines at which percentage of a metric the alert should flag.

• Projected Inventory - The percentage represents the on hand as a percentage of the projected ToR.

• Promotion - The percentage represents the percent difference between peak demand and average demand.

• Daily Usage - The percentage represents the percent change between ADU and FDU

Alert Type	Critical	High	Medium	Horizon
Projected Inventory	0% (A value of 0% Represents stock out our negative demand)	40% (Represents the percentage of the red zone.	60% (Represents the percentage of the red zone.	8 (Number of weeks the alerts status is determined).
Promotion	600% (Value represents % above average weekly demand)	300% (Value represents % above average weekly demand)	200% (Value represents % above average weekly demand)	8 (Number of weeks the alerts status is determined).
Daily Usage	500%	200%	150%