The PO Exception Control Center (ECC) provides the buyer(s) with a method for addressing items that may require changes to replenishment parameters, gap analysis, and outstanding vendor returns. You must specify a buyer and warehouse to review the data.
The Exception Control Center (ECC) is a critical part of the FACTS inventory management system and must be consistently reviewed by all buyers.
There are a series of alerts that FACTS looks for and notifies buyers about via the ECC, and missing these alerts not only eliminates many of the benefits of the proactive features of FACTS, but it can cause problems in some cases.
In Replenishment Parameter F/M, many of the settings have expiration dates. When those dates pass, the setting is removed. The only way the buyer knows that the expiration date is approaching is via the ECC.
The ECC automatically delivers alerts to buyers based on which ARP they are responsible for.
Many of the alerts are dependent on settings in Replenishment Parameters F/M or other places (noted in the detailed listing of the available alerts).
Each time you open the ECC, all open alerts are validated to be sure they still apply. If the alert is obsolete, it is automatically removed.
Furthermore, most alerts have a pre-established “re-raise” interval. Even if an alert was deleted, if the condition that triggered the alert remains unresolved after the re-raise interval number of days, it will be redisplayed and moved to the top of the list.
Using the ECC is simply a matter of reviewing the alerts and responding to them or deleting them. You should always delete alerts that you have addressed or have acknowledged but do not need to do anything about. Keeping this ECC list clean and small helps ensure that you notice important issues as they arise. If the list gets lengthy, it’s more likely that you will miss something or stop reviewing the list altogether.
The ECC includes a “Close All” button that will close (delete) all of the alerts currently displayed at the time Close All is selected.
The filters at the top of the ECC allow you to limit the results in many ways. Additionally, you can re-sort the list by any of the columns – the “Notice” column is designed to allow sorting in order of severity. By default, the items are sorted by descending date, with the most recent issues appearing at the top of the list.
Buyers should typically spend time in the ECC every day looking for and addressing issues as they arise.
As an alternative to the ECC, buyers can choose to have exceptions delivered via email if they have the Email Toolkit licensed. Buyer Code F/M has the option to deliver alerts to the ECC, Email or Both.
If a buyer chooses to have exceptions delivered to email, they will lose benefits like automatic removal of obsolete items, filtering, etc., and they will have to organize the exceptions in their email folders. To facilitate organization, all emails generated for alerts have consistent subject lines.
Review the details of the available alerts later in this document.
The ECC is populated using the System Alerts and Background Process. Processes will periodically execute update routines for the alerts to display. These alerts are classified as type “<ECC>” and contain reference information for display and processing. For example, an alert corresponding to frozen controls about to expire would include the scope information and direct you to the Replenishment Parameters Maintenance for review and updating.
The System Management system alert and background processing routines facilitate any actions needed to feed into the Buyers Control Center and Exception Control Center. The system has a defined set of routines and the update interval required to perform the exception and replenishment calculations. In addition, order point and line point adjustment routines receive updates during system register processes. Receipt of items adjusts the order point based on lead time changes for example, and occur automatically at preset intervals. The background processing agent is responsible for handling these updates and providing the data to the system.
The alert system notifies via the Exception Control Center and additionally can be configured to notify users via email for certain conditions. A buyer may want to be notified of abnormal lead times upon receipt of items via email. This is accomplished by a buyer subscribing to specific alert types and supplying their user code and email information. When an alert is generated, the alert system records the information for display in the Exception Control Center and sends a summarized message to the user’s inbox.
The system background processes have various settings applied based on the business need. For example, expiring T-Min and Frozen Controls are updated in daily intervals by default, whereas Frozen Products with Hits can be updated hourly. These settings are tunable and can be adjusted by business, system resource, or other needs as determined by the environment.
As you manage alerts, you can delete them from the browser in the lower portion of the screen. It is a good idea to delete completed alerts on a daily basis.
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