Product life-cycle management brings a new dimension to assortment management. The life-cycle stage is an attribute that indicates whether the product is new, if it has been available for a longer time, or if it will be removed from the selection. The different stages of the life cycle can also be used as the logic for triggering replenishment orders.
In Supermind, the life-cycle management includes defining the stages of the life cycle and linking them to the products. Product-specific life-cycle stages can also be imported from the ERP or POS system as part of the product information.
Benefits
Products can be grouped in a different view according to their life-cycle stage
- Life-cycle stages can be changed automatically
- Different functions can be linked to changes in the life-cycle stages
- Since the life-cycle stage is an attribute of the product, it can also be included in various reports.
Typical life-cycle stages
The life-cycle stages of a product can be freely defined. A typical life cycle starts with the creation of the item and ends with its archiving (created, upcoming, new, standard, to be discontinued, discontinued, and archived).
The life-cycle stage can be changed manually or automatically. For example, removing an item from the selection (i.e. changing its status to Discontinued) could be a change that you perform manually.
Automation
The life-cycle stage can be changed automatically based on any information in the system. For example, the stage could be changed from Created to Upcoming when the product has been ordered for the first time but has not yet arrived. Correspondingly, the stage could be changed from Upcoming to New, for example, based on stock balance or the first stock entry.
The automated ABC/XYZ analysis identifies the stages of the items’ life cycle and classifies the items accordingly. SUPERMIND analyzes and groups items based on sales margins, turnover, predictability, sales volumes, and even the number of customers. Supermind’s ABC/XYZ segmentation algorithm is arguably the most versatile on the market.
Additional information
The management of a product’s life-cycle stages is essentially linked to assortment management and can be used in demand forecasting and automated replenishment. If you’d like to know more, check out the links below.
Assortment management
Demand forecasting
Automated replenishment
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