Setting up Bundles with Variants (components) allows Inventory Planner to consider sales from Bundles in directly with the sales of components/variants when producing a forecast and replenishment recommendation at the Variant level.
Bundles are a subset of Inventory Planner's Bundles & Assemblies planning functionality. Learn more about how Bundles and Assemblies work together to recommend what to order from Vendors here: Bundles & Assemblies
Forecasting & Replenishment for Bundles
Using a simple example: by having 100 t-shirts, the stock of 1PK T-SHIRT = 100 is the same as saying the stock of 5PK T-SHIRT = 20. With Bundles applied, Inventory Planner treats the sale of 5PK T-SHIRT the same as selling 5 units of 1PK T-SHIRT. All sales from components and bundles will be captured automatically at the Variant level (1PK-SHIRT).
In Replenishment and Edit Forecast, you can view details at the Variant (component) level.
In this example, we sell t-shirts either as individual units (SKU BW345) or as multi-packs of 5 (SKU BW345-X5). All t-shirts come from the same supply of inventory, meaning both individual units and 5-packs are fulfilled from the same physical inventory.All customer orders are fulfilled from the same pile of inventory, so it’s only necessary to view forecasting and replenishment information in the 'Variants' view. This reflects forecasting and replenishment needs to cover demand both of the individual units and of the 5-pack.
Select the ‘Details’ icon;
Then the Bundles & Production tab to view a sales breakdown from bundles vs. variants. Sales are merged together for forecasting and replenishment purposes.
Select the Replenishment & Forecast tab to see how the combined past sales from bundles and components are used to generate forecasted sales and replenishment recommendations. Learn how Forecasts and Replenishment are calculated here.
Select the Variant(s) in the main Replenishment table then create a Purchase Order (or Transfer Order by selecting the arrow) for the Replenishment recommendation amount.
Scroll down to the ‘Create Purchase Orders for Components’ section for details.