Product Details
Overall Functionality
Supply Assigner is a supply assignment and demand fulfillment tool.
It can be used as astand-alone Windows application for planning or as a Windows DLL that
can beintegrated into any Windows or web-based Supply Chain Planning application forexecution. It can take a set of supply values, a set of demand values, and a matrix ofcosts of assigning
a unit supply of a supply location to a demand location. It then optimizes/minimizes the total cost
of assigning the optimal supply quantities to alldemand locations to meet the demand requirements not
violating the supply constraint.
Supply Assigner needs the Supply and Demand information
for the different sourcing and fulfillment locations. Additionally, a cost matrix needs
to be setup to define the per unit cost of fulfilling demand at each fulfillment location
from each sourcing or supply location. If a cost matrix cannot be defined by the user,
Supply Assigner can setup one by calculating the distances between each sourcing and
fulfillment location pair and use them as the costs. Supply Assigner consists of data
management and assignment engine modules. Solutions can be exported as text files into
MS Word or MS Excel. Data input is in the form of flat files. Supply Assigner uses powerful
linear programming algorithms to generate optimal sourcing of demand at each fulfillment
location.
Each sourcing and fulfillment location is defined in Supply Assigner as a Node.
Each Node maintains the information of its type and the quantity it is supplying or receiving.
In addition, each Node also maintains information on its sourcing/fulfillment nodes andquantities
it received/supplied from/to those nodes. When trying to match the supply todemand, Supply Assigner runs several solver iterations until
there is no further reductionin the total assignment cost.
Data Management
Supply and demand location data can be imported into Supply Assigner in
the form of ASCII files (tab or comma delimited). The data import wizard guides users through the setup process for importing this data into the system.
Very minimal data entry is required during the setup.
All the user settings are stored in the system so that repeated imports of data of same format will require
absolutely no data entry, minimizing user errors.
Supply Assigner’s data views present Supply and Demand Nodes, Cost Matrix data,
and Assignment Matrix data. These views enable users to quickly lookup data, makechanges, and recalculate the solution or run the
assignment engine with a different set of parameters. As the solution is developed, the data views update automatically to reflect the changes.
Assigning Supply
Supply Assigner uses robust assignment algorithms to optimally assign supply to
demand to reduce the total assignment cost. The algorithms
are controlled by the user-defined parameters.
Parameters
The assignment algorithm is currently controlled by a
few parameters: 1) Time For Random Initialization, 2) Type of Calculation Engine. The time parameter controls the time spent by the engine in using trial and error procedure while iterating
to improve the initial solution. Not all problems need this procedure but on occasions this procedure needs to be used to help improve
an initial solution. Any number of user-defined parameters can be added to constrain the solution procedure with minimal
development effort.
Calculation Engine
The distance and time calculations, if required, by the assignment and/or
cost calculation algorithms are obtained from different sources. Supply Assigner’s proprietary engine is the quickest in terms of rate of running the calculations.
Microsoft’s Mappoint and ALK’s PC*Miler are the other alternatives supported at this time.
Included in both these options is the ability to use air distances and actual road distances.
Air distances are calculated at a faster rate than the road distances.
Using Mappoint or PC*Miler and its add-ons will also provide mapping and geocoding capabilities.
Nodes and assignments can be displayed in a map window when using these tools.
Solution
and Presentation
The resulting assignments are presented in the form of spreadsheets and reports. Assignments can be exported in the form of text files. These reports consist of detailed information on all the assignments generated by the algorithm and
can be imported into MS Word or MS Excel for further configuration.
Developed in Visual C++ using Object
Oriented Design (OOD) methodology and Component Object Model
(COM) concepts. Uses
industry standard STL (Standard Template Libraries) and streaming
techniques for efficient data storage, retrieval, and persistence.
Supply Assigner does not require any database drivers or software.
