Configuration of the Explanation Tool 

Purpose

You can configure the explanation tool for an optimization log in Supply Network Planning (SNP) according to your requirements. This means you can choose which exceptional situations you want explained and how detailed you want the explanation to be. This affects, for example, the complexity of the calculation and thus the runtime as well.

Process

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       1.      Selection of the Optimization Run

You can select a specific optimization run directly or you can specify which run of a specific user is to be explained (going backward: the fourth to last run is run no. 4, for example).

       2.      Target of the Explanation

You can specify whether you want an explanation for the causes for non-delivery only, or for the causes for safety stock shortfall only, or both. In addition, you can specify the priority classes of the demand for which you want the system to determine these causes (demand forecast, customer demand, and so on).

You also have to show the system how your model is structured. By doing so, you are giving the system information about the sequence in which it is to check the possible causes for an exceptional situation. Depending on whether your model is based on control costs or actual costs or whether it is in the structure phase, other causes for the exceptional situation could be possible. Since the causes are dependent on one another, the check sequence of these causes is crucial for the analysis.

The following table shows the sequence of the analysis depending on the model:

Model based on control costs (such as high non-delivery costs with the goal of maximizing the service level)	Model based on business (actual) costs (such as prices as costs for non-delivery)	Model in the structure phase (master data is in the structure phase and might not yet be complete)
Costs Time-based constraints and maximum lot sizes Capacity restrictions Horizons (such as production horizon) Product availability Planning horizon	Time-based constraints and maximum lot sizes Capacity restrictions Horizons Costs Product availability Planning horizon	Costs Product availability Time-based constraints and maximum lot sizes Capacity restrictions Horizons Planning horizon

In the explanation results, the analysis phase displayed is the one in which the system has determined the cause.

You have defined high penalty costs for non-delivery in the location product master data to ensure that the system covers as many demands as possible. Since your model is therefore based on control costs, you set this as the target of the explanation.

However, the explanation tool ascertains that a demand was not covered. A probable cause is that you have not set the penalty costs for non-delivery high enough to prevent non-deliveries. According to your setting, the system first checks whether or not the penalty costs are the cause for the non-delivery. If so, the system does not have to check for any other causes (such as lack of capacity).

       3.      Object Selection

In many cases, explanations are only useful and necessary for a subgroup of the location products in an optimization run. For example, you can choose to see the explanations only for the non-deliveries for the most important products and/or customer locations.

You can select the location products with a selection you have created in interactive SNP planning or you can enter them directly.

       4.      Level of Detail of the Explanation

You can specify how detailed you want the system’s explanations to be. For example, the most detailed explanation would explain the non-delivery for each location product, period, and priority class. The least detailed explanation level would explain the non-delivery for all location products in the entire explanation horizon.

You can specify the following parameters:

¡        Level of detail: You specify how detailed you want the explanations to be. The options available are:

§         Aggregated explanations for all selected location products

§         Aggregated explanations for all products in a location

§         Aggregated explanations for a product in all locations

§         Explanations for each location product

You have defined that you want the system to generate aggregated explanations for all selected location products. You see the explanation that a total of 8 hours of production capacity are missing for all selected location products.

In this case, you cannot tell how much production capacity is necessary to remedy the missing quantity of a specific location product. To see this information, you must specify that you want the system to generate explanations for each location product.

¡        Explanation horizon: You can enter a time frame for which you want the system to generate explanations.

¡        Explanation for each period/priority class: You can specify whether you want the system to generate the explanation for each period and each priority class, or for the entire explanation horizon and not separately according to priority classes.

¡        Discrete restrictions: You can specify whether or not you want the system to consider the discrete restrictions defined in the SNP optimizer profile or deployment optimizer profile when it runs a cause analysis.

¡        Runtime: You can restrict the runtime of the explanation tool. If you have defined that the system also considers discrete restrictions (see above), we recommend that you restrict the runtime.