Start

After starting the Inventory Planning application, load a configuration that you created with Data Navigator Configuration Wizard and load a dataset that you imported with Data Navigator. When you start the app, the Load Configuration dialog will pop up automatically, followed by the Load Dataset dialog.

Load configuration

  1. Select a configuration by checking the checkbox in the Selected column.

  2. Click Load to confirm your selection.

The Load Configuration dialog can also be accessed directly by clicking on Current configuration in the status bar.

Load Dataset

  1. Select one or more dataset(s) by checking the checkbox in the Dataset Type column.

  2. Click Load to confirm your selection.

The Load Dataset dialog can be accessed directly by clicking on the dataset type in the status bar.

If you need to change your configuration, click Cancel and go back to the Load Configuration dialog to start over.

Tip: If you cannot find your dataset for current configuration, turn off the Only current configuration switch to see whether the dataset you are looking for is there. If the dataset appears, it matches a different configuration.

Actual Stock and Resource Network

Once you’ve loaded your configuration and dataset, the map on the Start page displays the corresponding resource location nodes. The sizes of the nodes represent the actual stock values. The arcs represent the network flow between the resource locations. When you hover over a node, you can see the actual stock values for that resource location.

Inventory KPIs

In the status bar, Maximum inventory value is displayed as main KPI. This is equal to the sum of Safety Stock, Cycle Stock (Max), Spare Parts Stock, Work in Progress, and In-Transit stock (depending on your configuration). When clicking on Maximum inventory value, the Inventory KPIs dialog pops up. It shows several Inventory related KPIs. For each KPI (except for cost KPIs) it shows the KPI in Value and in Units. Value here, has the currency unit. Units here is the base UOM that is specified in your configuration. The Holding Cost is calculated as a minimum (Min), average (AVG) and maximum (Max). The reason for this is that the amount of cycle stock fluctuates over time. Therefore, the holding cost fluctuate as well. When cycle stock is zero, holding cost is equal to the minimum value, when cycle stock is on its maximum, holding cost is equal to the maximum value. In the average holding cost calculation takes half of the calculated cycle stock into account. For spare parts, Maximum inventory value is equal to the calculated number of spare parts required. This value is also used as the minimum (Min) and average (AVG) for the holding cost calculation.

The Start page shows this same Inventory KPIs widget. This allows you to have a quick high-level overview, which can also be easily accessed from anywhere in the Inventory Planning app.

Please note that the filters on the side panel that are available on some pages of the app, are not applied to the KPI data.

View

The View panel at the right allows you to turn on/off the display of resource/customer nodes. It also allows you to turn on/off arcs between resources and arcs between resources and customers.

The View panel includes a legend for the resource and customer nodes as well. Stocked resources (green) are resources that have the possibility to store inventory, while Non-Stocked locations do not have this possibility. So, stock calculations are only done for stocked resources.

Workflow

On the left side of the page, you can see the Workflow panel. It guides you through the app and allows you to navigate through the pages of the application. The Start page is part of phase 1 of the workflow, which consists of loading your configuration and dataset(s), validating this data, and getting an overview of/reviewing the data that you’ve loaded. When your data is invalid, you will get a dialog message and you will be guided to the Data Validation page for more information on the invalid data. Once your data is validated correctly and you’ve seen the high-level overview on the Start page, you can review the data in more detail on the Review Master Data page. You can also directly go to the next phase of the app: Phase 2, Create Scenario.

Help

At the right side of the page, you can see the Help panel. This panel is available on all pages of the app and gives you some quick guidance in what you can see and/or do on a certain page. It also contains two buttons. One to direct you to this Online Documentation. The other one is called Debug Export and opens the corresponding dialog page where you can download a .data file that contains your currently loaded data. In case you run into an issue that needs inspection from our side, you can send us this .data file to allow us to debug the issue (as this can be data dependent).