Using the Product Ranking Program

Normally, the system compares product activity within a price line. If the ranking is done globally, then the system compares each product’s activity against the activity of all other products, regardless of price line. By default, the program runs for all price lines. Before running the Product Ranking program you need to determine how to rank the products and save the parameters.

If you manually change a product rank through Product Maintenance, you have the option of maintaining or overwriting that rank when you run the Product Ranking program. The system prompts you with the following: Overwrite Manually Set Product Ranks (Y/N). Enter Yes to complete the override.

Note: If a product has been ranked Collectively, the system does not delete the ranking even if the product is inactive for that branch.

For more information about how the system uses methods and breakpoints in the system, see Product Ranking Method and Breakpoint Rules.

The Product Ranking program provides the following information:

Miscellaneous charges and purge items are excluded from the rank calculation and items with a negative GP$ are considered zero.

Generating the Product Ranking Report

Use the Product Ranking program to run the Product Ranking Report. This report is more like an audit and lists what the percentage of items is in each rank and the value of each breakpoint. Use this information to determine how and why your products are currently ranked the way they are, answering the question: Where did this product rank come from?

To create a report from the Product Ranking Program follow the procedure below and change the Generate Report selection to Yes. The system saves this setting. The next time you run the program, you must change it back to No to rank your products without running the report.

For more information, see What the Report Shows below.

To run the Product Ranking Report:

1. From the Purchase > Forecasting menu, select Product Ranking to display the Product Ranking Report window.

2. In the Ranking ID field, select the ranking ID to include in the report. The system populates the current methods and breakpoints saved for that ranking ID.

3. Update the remaining fields, as needed:

   Field	Description
   Branch/Territory	Lets you rank products in a particular branch, branches, or territories. The results of the ranking process are always displayed on a branch-by-branch basis.
   Ranked	Indicate whether to rank the products Individually or Collectively. Individually - Product amounts within each branch are considered separately from every other branch when calculating product ranks. This is the default. Collectively - Product amounts for all branches are combined before calculating product ranks. If ranked collectively, products would consequently be assigned the same rank in each of the branches selected.
   Nonstocks	Specify whether to Include or Exclude product ranking for nonstock products. Include - If a nonstock is selling often enough to earn a high ranking, you can consider changing it to a stock item so you do not run out of it. This is the default. Exclude - The product is not included in the ranking process. For companies that do not rank nonstocks, this guarantees that ranked stock items that are changed to nonstock items do not retain their rank after the ranking program runs. Only - Apply parameters or run for only nonstock items.
   Generate Report	Select one of the following Yes - The system applies rankings and methods and creates a report to send to your hold file. You may need to set options for the report before running it. If the Ranking Method uses multiple branches and is ranked individually, a separate report for each branch prints. If the method used to rank products is set to Collectively, a single report prints for all branches because the products received the same rank at all branches. Item rank displays on the report next to rank number. No - The system applies rankings and methods without creating a report. This is the default. Generally, users only want to apply ranking changes and not run a new report.

4. Use the Ranking Method and Ranking Breakpoints areas to limit the report:

5. Do one of the following:

6. From the File menu, select Save to save your rankings and methods.

7. From the File menu, select Begin to rank you products or run the report immediately.

8. From the Options menu, select Schedule to set the program to run at a later date or at regular intervals.

To delete a product ranking ID:

1. From the Purchase > Forecasting menu, select Product Ranking to display the Product Ranking window.

2. In the Ranking ID field, select the product ranking template you want to delete and press Enter.

3. From the File menu, select Delete and answer Yes at the prompt.

What the Report Shows

The Product Ranking Report lists the following fields and information. The report is used like an audit to figure out why your products are ranked the way they are.

Normal Report View

The following columns display regardless if you have advanced ranks or breakpoints. These column names display at the top of the report in the header. They line up with the values when normal report values display for a ranking method.

Advanced Report View

The advanced report view is written as an audit and describes why a ranking displays as it does. The system lists each ranking method, such as #1 Ranking Method: Annualized Hits for the Year and its ranking information separately.

For example:

Advanced Ranking - Value Match : B PRODUCT 5/6 WGHT SPECIAL 120082
Product Ranking = 'C' because an Annualized Hits for the Year of 80 is greater than or equal to 50 AND is less than 100

The product ID number listed with each product is a link that you can select to display information about, such as inventory history or product ledgers. For more about how report interfaces work, see Drilling Into Report Data.

See Also:

Product Ranking Overview

Product Ranking Method and Breakpoint Rules