Cycles overview

Use this page to define a cycle in SCP.

Cycles consist of a set of business plans or scenarios to cater for specific business cycles (with a defined period, for example, months).

A business cycle type can be, for example, a normal cycle which contains a set of plans for normal operations, or a disaster cycle, with a separate set of plans, in case of major issues.

To each cycle (definition), these objects can be linked:

  • A calendar, which includes the time periods, such as years, months, weeks, and quarters. Plan data can be reported in these time periods in the application.
  • A default item hierarchy (level) and default location hierarchies for the cycle's implemented modules. Plan data can be reported in the application for these planning hierarchies.
  • A cycle process, which contains the events that must be executed in each period. A cycle process can be controlled and monitored by workflow definitions that are defined in ION, are used to execute the overall process.
  • The default planning scenarios for a specific business area, for example, a scenario for Demand, a scenario for Supply, and so on. These scenarios can be controlled and monitored by the processes that specify the steps required to complete the scenario.
  • Additional planning hierarchies. Specify these hierarchies, to calculate planning data for the default planning hierarchies as specified for the cycle, and also for other items and locations, in the worksheets.
  • Rolling periods. Specify these periods, to calculate planning data not only for the current cycle period (hierarchy), but also for other calendar periods, in the worksheets.
  • Additional pivot attributes. Specify these attributes, to view planning data of the selected item and location dimension, and also for additional groups of item or locations, in the worksheet.
  • Default notes. Specify default notes to ensure the logging of notes when saving scenario changes and/or recalculating a worksheet's planning data within a cycle.
Note: 
  • A workflow definition assigns the tasks and alerts to ensure that the users, linked to the process, are informed of the requirements to execute the cycle and also when the cycle must be completed.
  • Cycle periods can be manually created or can be generated by the application. \