Order Constraints
Order quantities can be recalculated to satisfy or surpass certain set constraints.
To create an Order Constraint, click on the 3D box on the right side of the breadcrumbs bar (when the mouse hovers over this box, the word Constraints will appear).
Constraints will only be applied to the orders or order items that are checked, either individual orders or multiple orders. For instance, as seen above, if the user chooses to add a constraint, the only order items that will be affected will be the three highlighted lines, as their boxes are checked.
Once the 3D box is clicked, and Create Constraint is chosen, a pop-up window will appear, as seen below.
To create a new constraint, the user must start by giving the constraint a descriptive name and then choosing the behaviour of the constraint: satisfy constraints or surpass constraints. For example, if you want to ensure that your order will fill up a container without the use of a second container, then the order will need to satisfy the constraint by making sure that the number of pallets is less than (<) the total number pallets the container can hold.
Conversely, some suppliers might give a company a special deal (5% discount) if they buy for more than a certain amount, which would be an example of a constraint with behaviour to surpass. For instance, the figure below shows a constraint that asks the value to be at least 200,000 ISK (the value must correspond with the currency that you are currently using), allowing the user to receive the agreed 5% discount.
By default, constraints can be applied based on weight, volume, number of pallets, days, quantity, or value.
The ‘days’ constraint could also be named order period (order frequency + lead time) as it adjusts the order period for each item in the order. For example, if order frequency is 7 days and lead-time is 14 days for an item, and we ask the system to surpass 4 weeks, then the system will look 1 more week forward and increase the order accordingly. It is also possible to constrain the order, so it will be less than 14 days, but then we must make sure that the actual delivery time from the supplier is not more than 14 days.
Multiple constraints can be applied simultaneously.
When selecting Satisfy Constraints, the user is given the option to Fill Up. In most cases, this is used for container optimization and there are five default options as to how the user would like to fill up the container, as seen below. Alternatively, you would select No Fill-up if the user is not interested in this. There are various ways that one can choose to fill up the order: highest demand (based on forecast, sales plan, and known demand), highest selling items (based on highest selling items using all sales history), lightest items, least expensive items, proportion by order qty, or no fill-up.
Split By Constraints
When an order is selected, and the Constraint button is clicked, you will see the Split by Constraint option with the three boxes:
When you click on these three boxes, a new window will appear.
Here you can split up the order based on the constraints that you have to accommodate. For example, if you are creating an order and when you are done, it is about 150 cubic meters, but your supplier only allows order that will fill up a shipping container (66 cubic meters). Then you can select all the lines in said order and choose “Split by Constraint” and the AGR system would make sure to create 3 different orders from it that would fit into 3 shipping containers, rather than 1 large order.