Vinculum Knowledge Central

Auto Replenishment System

Introduction

Generally, for any business operating with multiple SKUs, it becomes a tedious task for any business owner to manage Pos/STOs through various vendors and keeping track of the existing inventory in the system. The user must check the stock of the existing inventory in the system and must raise the POs accordingly if certain SKUs are not available. This might be a time-consuming process and would sometimes impact the business with the loss of certain potential sales due to inventory unavailability.

Auto Replenishment System (ARS) is the functionality in Vin eRetail where the user can configure this issue and could manage the PO/STO generation automatically without any manual intervention. The user can configure ARS in the system based on the Sales History or specifying the min max criteria in the system. This helps the user to automatically raise POs according to the conditions specified by the user in the system. 

Following are the configurations from where the ARS can be enabled in the system – 

1. At company level – ARS can be enabled at the company level through Admin > Settings > ARS Enable
2. At Location level – ARS can be enabled at a particular location while creating a location in the system. This can be done by clicking the checkbox, is ARS req.
3. At SKU level – ARS can be enabled for any SKU created in the system. This can be done clicking on the checkbox named is ARS Applicable? under the ARS details tab of the SKU Create/Edit screen.
4. At SKU-Location level – ARS can be enabled for any SKU-location combination as defined by the user in the system. The user can activate ARS for any SKU location combination

To set rules for ARS in the system, following are the steps that need to be taken – 

1. Click on Procurement module and navigate to the ARS section. Click on ARS rules and a new tab named ARS rules will appear. 
2. Click on Add New to add new ARS rules to the system. 
3. Fill in all the details regarding the rule description, ARS method etc. and add the specific SKU set for which these rules are applicable.
4. Click on confirm and ARS rule will be saved to the system.

Navigation: Procurement > ARS > ARS Rules

ARS Module has the following three sections – 

1. SKU-Location Link: This screen is same as the SKU-Location Link screen in the SKU Masters screen of the system. The user can link SKUs to the locations and can enable ARS rules for an SKU-Location combination through this screen. For detailed explanation, please refer to the document under SKU Master for SKU-location link.
2. ARS Rules: This screen enables the user to add new ARS rules in the system. The user can set up rules from this screen so that the automatic replenishment for SKUs based on factors like Min/Max stock, Sales history and other factors can be done. 

Below are the fields on which the user can search/filter the already existing rules in the system 

The user can select a particular location and/or a particular Product set and if he clicks on Search, the results for ARS rules created in the system will be visible.

Action buttons:

When the user clicks on Add New, the new screen named ARS Create/edit will appear on the screen.

Following are the fields where the user can put in all the details –

• Rule ID: This is the system generated unique rule ID for the rule created by the user.
• Rule Description*: This is the description of the rule which will have the descriptions about its functions.
• Remarks: The user can add and enter remarks while creating the ARS rule in the system.
• ARS Method: There are two ARS methods in the system
  1. Min-Max method – Choosing this method will open two fields where the user will add the minimum and the maximum quantity which will be implied on this method. For example, if the minimum quantity is 2 and the maximum quantity is 5 and whenever the minimum quantity of the selected SKUs reaches 2, then automatically the replenishment quantity will reach 5 and PO/STO will be created.
  2. Sales History: If the user selects Sales history method, the replenishment of quantities is based on the sales history. After selecting this, the user can select the rate of sales period and based on this the rule will be configured. The rate of sales can be configured from the following path

Admin > Settings > ARS Configuration

Once the user configures the ROS here, the options will be visible on the ARS create/edit screen. 

• Vendor type*: This is the type of the vendor created in the system and is divided in following three types – 
  1. Min Cost – This specifies the vendor who is providing the minimum cost for the SKUs.
  2. Min Lead Time – This specifies the vendor who has a minimum lead time for providing the selected SKUs.
  3. Primary – This specifies the primary vendor assigned to an SKU while creation. 
• Output type* - Selecting an output type will mean this will decide the status of the PO that will be created.
  1. Confirmed: If this output type is chosen, the PO will be in the confirmed state. 
  2. Pending: If this output type is chosen, the PO will be in the pending state.
  3. Report:
• Location* - From here the user can select all the applicable locations on which this rule will be active.
• Start & End date – These are the dates on specified by the user which will determine the duration of the of the rule created.
• Status – This is the status (Active/Inactive/Pending/Discontinued) on which the rule can be created in the system.
• Frequency: This is the frequency of the rule that should be executed. For example, if the user selects bimonthly, the rule will be executed twice every month. 

After filling in all the details, the user can add the SKU Set on which the defined ARS will be applicable. The user can click on Add SKU set and the new pop up will open. 

Here, the user can select the type, whether to Include or exclude a particular Operand in the SKU set. The Operands can be Brands, Groups, Hierarchy, Vendor, and individual SKUs. This means when the user clicks on Type Include and Operand as Brands, the results will be shown for brands configured in the system. 

Based on these brands shown, the user can select multiple brands as per the need and add it to the right section by clicking on Add button shown by the green arrow and click on Ok. The set of brands will be added to the rules.

When the user clicks on SKU under the Operand, there are two options for selecting the SKUs. Either the user can type in manually, multiple SKU codes in the box on the left side and then click on Add or select Get SKU by Picklist, where the user will have a list of all the SKUs created in the system and can select different SKUs as per the need. 

After filling in all the details, user can click on Confirm and the rule will be added to the system. 

Following are the action buttons – 

The user can manually search the Rule ID or the Execution ID for a particular rule in the system. 

Following are the parameters based on which the user can filter the results for execution logs – 

• Location 
• Execution ID
• Execution Time
• Rule Name
• Frequency
• Vendor type
• Output type 
• Status

Action Buttons: