Using Product Lifecycles

In order to control inventory, you can classify products into different groups based on where that product is in it lifecycle as you define it, such as Dead Stock or 180 Day Sales.

The Product Lifecycle Queue displays all the products and their corresponding lifecycles based on the running the Product Lifecycle Build. From the queue, you can use the filters to display only the products and lines you want to see.

The queue has many views to see on hand, surplus, last sales dates, estimated return date for the vendor, plus more.  From the queue you can review your products based on the lifecycle assigned and change or update the product status and lifecycle right from the queue.

Return Purchase Order, Branch Transfers, and Inventory Adjustments all can be made from the queue.

Additional options include clearing out the Product Lifecycle so the lifecycle can be updated by the build and a purge option so that the queue can be deleted or just products with a zero on hand.

Product Lifecycle Queue Rules

The product lifecycle lives in both the product record and the Product Lifecycle Queue. There are specific rules surrounding how users can update lifecycles:

• When the Product Lifecycle Build runs it populates the Product Lifecycle Queue and product record with a lifecycle in each branch selected on the build.

• After a product is assigned a lifecycle, the Product Lifecycle Build never overwrites that lifecycle. The build updates the Calculated Product Lifecycle column in the Calculated Lifecycle view in the queue.

• The Product Lifecycle Build only updates a lifecycle in the build, if the Lifecycle column is blank. Therefore, in order to update the lifecycle for a product the lifecycle must be cleared. You can clear a lifecycle manually or by using the Clear Lifecycle function on the queue. You can also update the lifecycle for a product through the product record in Product Maintenance. Lastly, you can use Mass Load to remove lifecycles.

• You can clear a lifecycle manually or by using the Clear Lifecycle function on the queue. You can also update the lifecycle for a product through the product record in Product Maintenance. Lastly, you can use Mass Load to remove lifecycles.

• If the Product Lifecycle is manually updated from the Product Lifecycle Queue then that override flows through to the product record in Product Maintenance for the branch.

• If the Product Lifecycle is manually updated from the product record in Product Maintenance and the product is in the Product Lifecycle Queue then the override flows through to the Product Lifecycle Queue.

• If the Product Lifecycle is manually updated from the product record and the product is not in the Product Lifecycle Queue, then the override exists only on the product record. If this case is true, then if the product is selected by the Product Lifecycle Build uses the overridden lifecycle from the product record in Product Maintenance.

Displaying the Product Lifecycle Queue

The Product Lifecycle Queue displays all lifecycles and the corresponding branches or buy lines that the lifecycles affect. The display depends on the parameters you have set in the Product Lifecycle File creation and the header parameters for the queue.

Note: The message "No Products Found" displays if the Product Lifecycle Build has not been run or the system cannot match products to your specified criteria.

To display the Product Lifecycle Queue:

1. From the Purchase > Queues menu, select Product Lifecycle Queue to display the Product Lifecycle Queue.

2. Use the header fields to define the parameters you want for the queue:

   Field	Description
   Branch/Territory/ All	Enter the branch, branches or territories for which you want to display lifecycle data.
   Buy Line	Enter one or more buy lines to filter the queue by. If no buy line is selected, the system selects all products by buy line.
   Days in Lifecycle Greater Than	To limit the queue to items that have been assigned a certain lifecycle for a specific number of days. For example, you want to see only those items that have been assigned a lifecycle of Dead365 for longer than a month. Enter 30 in this field.
   Days Supply Greater Than	To limit the queue to products based on how much supply is in your inventory, enter the number of days. For example, you want to view only products that have excess inventory for six months. Enter 180 in this field.
   Lifecycle Desc	To limit the queue to a specific lifecycle, enter the full description assigned to the lifeycle ID in Product Lifecycle Maintenance. Leave this field blank to display details for all lifecycles.
   Last Sale Before	Enter a date in the field to display lifecycles whose products' last sales are before the entered date.
   Commodity Code	Enter the standard industry code used to group products in different price lines or buy lines for selection. Authorized users can define these codes using the Valid Product Commodity Codescontrol maintenance record.
   Buyer	Enter a buyer ID to limit the queue by the buyer for the Buy Line as entered in the Buyer column in Buy Line Maintenance.
   Product	Enter a product ID or description to limit the queue to a single product's results  regardless of lifecycle.
   Product Status	Enter the product status for which you want to display lifecycle data: Stock, NonStock, Delete or Review.
   Product GL Type	To limit the queue to a specific product G/L type enter the type name. The G/L product type is a category that describes the type of products sold, such as, plumbing, electrical, tools, or commodities.
   Product Select Code	Enter the product select code used to group products assigned to different price lines or buy lines. Note: Product select codes are defined in the Valid Product Select Codescontrol maintenance record and assigned to products in Product Maintenance.

3. Click Update to display the results. You can adjust the filter by changing header fields at any time.

Note:Manual overrides are indicated by bold text.

4. Modify the Produce Lifecycle or Product Status column values, if needed. All other columns are view only.

Note: Use Shift + Select to select and update multiple products at once.

5. Use the View menu to adjust which columns display depending on your business needs:

• Default - These columns display with all views.

  Column	Description
  Branch	The branch in which the lifecycle ID is assigned.
  Product Description	The product description as listed in the product file in Product Maintenance.

• Lifecycle

  Column	Description
  Product Status	The current product status. If the status is overridden at a branch level, the override displays.
  Lifecycle Description	Populates when the Product Lifecycle Build runs. For more information, see the rules for how the queue is populated above. Note:  The system always updates the Calculated Lifecycle column so you can evaluate what the lifecycle the system would assign based on your parameters.
  Buy Line	The product's buy line.

• Lifecycle Comparison

  Column	Description
  Lifecycle Description	copy from other table
  Calculated Lifecycle Description	The lifecycle the system would have assigned based on the Product Lifecycle Build parameters to provide comparisons between the assigned lifecycle and the system-calculated lifecycle. This column updates each time the Product Lifecycle Build runs regardless of whether it already has a lifecycle assigned or not. Note:The system never overwrites the Lifecycle Description based on the calculated description.
  On Hand	Total amount on hand based on the product location quantity types used on the Product Lifecycle Build. For example, if you select Stock, Display, and Tagged, the system displays the on-hand quantities in all locations. If you select only Stock, then the system displays the on-hand quantity in the Stock locations only.
  Days Supply	The number of days the supply of inventory based on the On Hand column value divided by the demand per day in the branch.

• On Hand

  Column	Description
  On Hand	Total amount on hand based on the product location quantity types used on the Product Lifecycle Build, such as stock, display, and tagged.
  Days Supply	The number of days the supply of inventory based on the On Hand column value divided by the demand per day in the branch.
  Surplus Point	The line point plus the economic order quantity rounded to package quantity. Calculation: (LP + EOQ) rounded to PkgQty
  Surplus Qty	The amount of inventory on hand that is above the product surplus point.
  Rep-Cost	The replacement cost for the product.

• Buy Package

  Column	Description
  Buy Package	Product buy package amount for the branch.
  Buy Package DIV	Indicates if the product package can be divided as defined in Product Maintenance.
  Return By	The estimated return date back to the vendor without incurring restocking charges. The system calculates the date using the Return Days defined for the buy line.

• Days in Lifecycle

  Column	Description
  Days in Lifecycle	The number of days the product has been in the queue with this lifecycle ID.
  Last Sale	The date the product was last sold.
  Last PO	The purchase order ID for the last time the product was received.
  Last Transfer	The transfer order ID for the last time the product was transferred to another branch.

• Returns/Adj/Xfers

  Column	Description
  Lifecycle Description	Populates when the Product Lifecycle Build runs. For more information, see the rules for how the queue is populated above. Note:  The system always updates the Calculated Lifecycle column so you can evaluate what the lifecycle the system would assign based on your parameters.
  OnHand	Total amount on hand based on the product location quantity types used on the Product Lifecycle Build, such as stock, display, and tagged.
  Return To	The vendor name to which the product is being returned displays in the Return To field. If blank, the vendor has not been identified and the order remains in the Returned Goods Queue. Use the Return to Branch and Return to Vendor selections from the Edit menu to select a branch or a vendor.
  Return Qty	(View Only) Displays the number of items being returned. You can sort by this column by clicking the column header. Note: If you double-click in this field, the associated order displays in view-only mode.

• User-Defined View Maintenance - Select which columns you want to display for your personal view.

6. Save your changes and exit the description.

Clearing Product Lifecycles

As you work with lifecycles and define your product lifecycle assignments, you may find that you need to clear the lifecycle assignments and reapply based on new parameters. Lifecycle assignments are not updated unless the build runs. You can update lifecycles individually from the queue, but this can be time-consuming if you are viewing an entire buy line. You can clear the current queue assignments as a whole and then reapply based on the current build parameters.

To clear the lifecycle queue assignments:

1. Display the Product Lifecycle Queue.

2. From the File menu, select Clear Product Lifecycles.

3. Select one of the following:

4. Clear all lifecycles - Removes all lifecycle assignments for products in the user's viewing excluding manually overridden lifecycles.

5. Clear all lifecycles including manual overrides - Clears all lifecycle assignments for products regardless if they were manually overridden. This selection also updates the Lifecycle ID on the product to sync the assignments and the ID.

3. Click OK to clear the lifecycles and return to the build screen.

Purging Product Lifecycle Items

At times, that you may need to clear out the entire product lifecycle queue. For example, you set your build parameters and did not get the results you expected. You want to re-build the queue with a clean slate. You can purge the queue and start again. Or as you sell off products you want the option to remove products from the queue that no longer have an on hand quantity. You can purge items from the lifecycle build and reload product parameters for the queue.

To purge the product lifecycle items:

1. Display the Product Lifecycle Queue.

2. From the File menu, select Purge.

3. Select one of the following:

• Purge entire file - Purges all items from the LIFECYCLE.QUEUE file. Using this selection makes the Product Lifecycle Queue blank.

• Purge only products with zero on-hand - Purges any products from the lifecycle queue that currently have zero on-hand quantity. The current on-hand quantity is based on the location types the user selected in the build, such as Stock or Display. If no locations were selected, the build uses all possible location types the user has authorization to select in the build, including Stock, Tagged, and Display.

4. Click OK to purge the file.

5. Redefine your build parameters.

6. Display the queue.

More Options from the Product Lifecycle Queue

The Product Lifecycle Queue window also offers these options:

See Also:

Building the Product Lifecycle File

Creating Product Lifecycles