Flow Report

The Flow Report shows the balance between supply and demand, to, from, and inside a given area in the environment being analyzed. An area includes one or more warehouses. You can view the balance between supply and demand for a specific item or a group of items and for different time periods.

If the balance between supply and demand is positive, the production area produces more items than required. This results in an increased stock level, which then results in increased costs and reduced profit. You can use the Flow Report to ensure that the production area produces only what is required to meet the demand.

You can use the Flow Report for both planning and scheduling purposes. In planning, it is appropriate to display the report on an aggregated item level. For example, show item groups per month. In scheduling, you can use Flow Report on a more detailed level. For example, show all transactions on an item on a given day.

The Flow Report is located under Orders and Material Control in the Component Overview Menu in the Planning application.

In the tabs in the Flow Report, the report shows the supply and the demand for the specified period, for the specified time buckets, and by the specified unit of measure. These parameters are defined on the Primary tab of the Flow Report Setup panel. These are the tabs in the Flow Report:

Tab Description
Profile Shows a comparison of supply and demand for a given item selection, both as a numeric and as a graphic profile.
Balance Shows the balance stock for a given item selection. The balance is shown as a graphic profile.
Details Shows the different types of supply and demand. Each of the types of supply and demand is shown in a separate column in the report.

To view a list of functions you can perform, see Automatic Functions.

Types of Supply and Demand in Extended View

The Supply is shown as a sum of these order types in the Flow Report:
  • External Supply: Supply that originates from outside the selected area.
  • Inter-area Supply: Internal supply delivering to an internal demand.
  • Internal Supply: Internal supply delivering to an external demand.
The Demand is shown as a sum of these order types:
  • Internal Demand: Internal demand covered by an external supply.
  • Inter-area Demand: Internal demand covered by an internal supply.
  • External Demand: Demand that originates from outside the selected area.

You may disable one or more of these types of supply and demand in the Extended View field in the setup panel. Only the totals for the selected order types are shown in the sum fields in the report. The Details tab shows only the relevant columns.

It is recommended to disable the Inter-area Supply and Inter-area Demand, because the material transactions inside the selected area are not relevant. In this case, the Flow Report only shows the material transactions to and from the selected area.

Initial Stock and Initial Balance

You can view these fields concerning item stock at the top level of the panel:

  • Initial Stock: Initial quantity of items in stock for the item selection.
  • Initial Balance: Balance for the considered group of items from the start of the first day in the report period. If the report start date is the same as the plan start date, the Initial Stock and Initial Balance is the same. If the report start date is later than the plan start date, the Initial Balance displays the Initial Stock as it would have developed from plan start date to report start date if all supply and demand are considered.
Note: The Initial Balance field is influenced by the selections in the Extended View Control screen.

Level of Details

You can view the Flow report for different time buckets and for different item groups depending on the level of details required in planning and in scheduling.

Time Buckets

You can view the Flow Report for these time buckets:
  • Day
  • Week
  • Month

If you select Week or Month in the setup panel, the list in the Details tab contains a column that shows the number of days in a week or month. Only the days within the report period are included. For example, if you select the time bucket Week, the first and last record may not cover the entire week or seven days.

Item Groups

You can view the Flow Report for a given item selection. The item selection can consist of these criteria:
  • A single item
  • Main product
  • Free group
  • Item group
  • Product group
  • ABC class
  • Item field filter
  • All items

You can select the grouping method in the Group Method field in the setup panel.

You can select the item selection from the drop-down menu in the Group field located at the top of the panel in the report. The drop-down menu in this field contains all item groups within the Area Selection criterion and the Item Selection criterion that are selected in the setup panel. Only the item groups containing supply or demand are listed in the drop-down menu. When you select a given group from the Group drop-down menu and you click the View button, the report shows the date for the selected item group.

Area Selection

The area is selected in the setup panel. You can use the Area Selection for these purposes:

  • Determine the items considered in the report. These are the items that you can select to consider in the report:
    • Warehouse: Consider the items located in the given warehouse.
    • Facility: Consider the items located in all the warehouses in the given facility.
    • Division: Consider the items located in all the warehouses in the given division.
  • Classify orders as either internal, inter-area, or external. These are the order classifications in the Flow Report:
    • External Supply: The order transports items from an external source into the selected are. The term external refers to the origin of the order.
    • Inter-area Order: The order transports items between two warehouses inside the selected area.
    • External Demand: The order transports items from the selected area to an external source. The term external refers to the origin of the demand.

Supply and Demand Orders in the Flow Report

Supplying and demanding orders transport items between warehouses. This table shows the types of supply and demand in the Flow Report:

Table 1.
Type Name Description
Supply External supply Supply that originates from outside the selected area.
Supply Inter-area supply Supply that originates from and delivers inside the selected area.
Supply Internal supply Supply that originates from inside the area and delivers outside the selected area.
Demand Internal demand Demand that orinigates from inside the area and is supplied from outside the selected area.
Demand Inter-area demand Demand that originates from and is supplied inside the selected area.
Demand External demand Demand that originates from outside the selected area.

The kinds of supply and demand are shown in this diagram:

Flow report supply and demand