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Rules Engine Methodology
Figure 14–1
Top Down Approach
The first step in the top down approach is to determine the hierarchy of business
objects for each of the three types of strategies: picking, put away, and cost group.
This hierarchy determines the order in which the Rules Engine will search for an
applicable strategy. For nearly all organizations, the organization business object
will be the most general. This top level will serve as a default; if there is no strategy
that is more specific to the situation, then this strategy will be used.
The next hierarchy levels become more difficult; for some organizations, the item
category may be the next more specific business object, but for others very
important customers might have requirements that are more important than item
category designated stock rotations and allocation policies. Other possible business
objects include freight carrier, order type, and item. Not all of the available business
objects need to be assigned in the hierarchy. In fact, it is unlikely that an
organization will need more than three or four business objects in each hierarchy.
The minimal set needed to satisfy the organizations needs should be used, as each
level added to the hierarchy adds complexity to implementation and maintenance
of the Rules Engine.
The Rules Engine starts at the highest priority sequence, searching for an applicable
strategy, and continues searching until it reaches the top level, or until it comes to
the first applicable strategy.
Example: Item PR11568 and RM25910 are assigned to the item category
perishable, but ST15670 is not.
For the organization WH1, the following put away strategy search order is used:
10 Item
20 Item Category
30 Organization
Warehouse Management Rules Engine 14-7