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<ManualTopic ID="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000301" xml:lang="en">
	<Header>
		<Title xmlns:ssa="http://www.ssaglobal.com" xmlns:HTML="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">Clusters in Enterprise Planning</Title>
		<Keyword><Level1>Clusters</Level1>
			<Level2>Enterprise Planning</Level2>
		</Keyword>
	</Header>
	<GeneralSection><Paragraph>Enterprise Planning uses <Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000315" role="glossary">clusters</Link> to support business procedures such as forecasting, sales, inventory planning, order acceptance, and inventory replenishment in, and between the entities that form the (internal) network of a company. The cluster concept provides SSA ERP with a method to plan on the proper entities, which are warehouses, sales offices, distribution centers, and manufacturing sites, and take into account the flow of goods within a company.</Paragraph>
		<GeneralSection><SectionTitle>The cluster concept</SectionTitle>
			<Paragraph>A cluster is a group of warehouses in a particular geographical area. Enterprise Planning plans items for each cluster, which is why for each item, you can create more than one plan item: a <Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000055" role="glossary">nonclustered item</Link> and the related <Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000054" role="glossary">clustered item</Link>. The only difference with a nonclustered item is that the clustered item has a cluster link: the entity where the plan item is physically stored, issued from, or comes in belongs to a certain group of warehouses: the cluster.</Paragraph>
			<Paragraph>One of the characteristics of the cluster concept is that you can set up ssupplying relationships between a clustered item and a nonclustered item. This is important because these relationships enable you to build the indispensable network that Enterprise Planning must have to perform distribution requirements planning (DRP). You can set up distribution relationships an all directions, even from a <Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000054" role="glossary">clustered item</Link> to a <Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000055" role="glossary">nonclustered item</Link>.</Paragraph>
			<Paragraph>To perform forecasting, sales order entry, and sales order acceptance on the level of a clustered item, SSA ERP also supports master planning for clustered items, which means that you can use forecasting techniques, inventory planning, <Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000030" role="glossary">available-to-promise (ATP)</Link>, and (dis)aggregation functionality. The use of a master plan for clustered plan items enables you, for example, to (dis)aggregate forecasts, plans, and orders between a central office and a regional distribution center or a sales office.</Paragraph>
		</GeneralSection>
		<GeneralSection><SectionTitle>To set up a cluster</SectionTitle>
			<Paragraph>You can define a cluster in the <GUIRef href="/baanerp/tc/emm/tcemm1135m000" role="session">Clusters (tcemm1135m000)</GUIRef> session and connect it to a warehouse in the <GUIRef href="/baanerp/tc/emm/tcemm1112m000" role="session">Warehouses (tcemm1112m000)</GUIRef> session. A cluster can only contain nonnettable warehouses, one of which is the default warehouse. Enterprise Planning always aggregates the planning to this default warehouse if there is more than one warehouse, just as it aggregates the planning of a nonclustered item to the default warehouse. You can define the default warehouse in the <GUIRef href="/baanerp/cp/rpd/cprpd1100m000" role="session">Items - Planning (cprpd1100m000)</GUIRef> session. Enterprise Planning automatically aggregates the inventory and the demand of the plan item to this default warehouse during a planning run.</Paragraph>
			<Paragraph>The cluster is one of the segments in the plan item code, and, as a result, for each clustered plan item you can define planning data in the <GUIRef href="/baanerp/cp/rpd/cprpd1100m000" role="session">Items - Planning (cprpd1100m000)</GUIRef> session, which implies that each clustered plan item has its own default warehouse, supply source, master-plan and time-fence settings.</Paragraph>
			<List><ListIntro>The supply source of a clustered plan item can be:</ListIntro>
				<ListItem>Distribution.</ListItem>
				<ListItem>Purchase.</ListItem>
				<ListItem>Production.</ListItem>
				<ListItem>Multi-sourcing.</ListItem>
			</List>
			<Paragraph>For more detailes information how to use clusters for each supply source, refer to the related topics.</Paragraph>
		</GeneralSection>
		<GeneralSection><SectionTitle>Multisource supply</SectionTitle>
			<Paragraph>Another supply option for clustered plan items is multisourcing, for which you can define the settings in the <GUIRef href="/baanerp/cp/rpd/cprpd7110m000" role="session">Sourcing Strategy (cprpd7110m000)</GUIRef> session. You can define sourcing strategies for each clustered item.</Paragraph>
			<Paragraph>However, you can only set up cluster-specific distribution relations for the <GUIRef href="" role="manual">distribution</GUIRef> source. For the <GUIRef href="" role="manual">purchase</GUIRef> and <GUIRef href="" role="manual">production</GUIRef> sources you cannot define cluster-specific supplier information and a <Link href="/baanerp/ti/glossary/glossary#BillOfMateri.ti" role="glossary">bill of material (BOM)</Link> and <Link href="/baanerp/ti/glossary/glossary#Routing.ti" role="glossary">routing</Link>. In case of manufactured and purchased items, SSA ERP uses the same data to plan the clustered item, as well as the nonclustered item.</Paragraph>
		</GeneralSection>
		<GeneralSection><SectionTitle>ATP for clustered items</SectionTitle>
			<List><ListIntro>SSA ERP supports four types of <Link href="/baanerp/tp/glossary/glossary#000322" role="glossary">available-to-promise (ATP)</Link> for clustered items:</ListIntro>
				<ListItem>Standard CTP</ListItem>
				<ListItem>Component CTP</ListItem>
				<ListItem><Link href="/baanerp/cp/glossary/glossary#000037" role="glossary">Channel ATP</Link>
				</ListItem>
				<ListItem>Family CTP</ListItem>
			</List>
		</GeneralSection>
		<Paragraph>You cannot use capacity CTP for clustered items, because SSA ERP always calculates the capacity CTP checks via the <Link href="/baanerp/ti/glossary/glossary#BillOfCritic.ti" role="glossary">Bill of Critical Capacities</Link>. Because clustered items do not have their own bill of critical capacities, SSA ERP would perform a double check, both for the clustered and the non-clustered item, and, as a result promise double capacity.</Paragraph>
		<Paragraph>Refer to online manual topic <Link href="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000350" role="manual">Example: distribution structure with clusters</Link> for more information about the cluster concept.</Paragraph>
		<Note><SectionTitle>Note</SectionTitle>
			<Paragraph>On the <GUIRef href="" role="menu">Specific</GUIRef> menu in the <GUIRef href="/baanerp/cp/rpd/cprpd1100m000" role="session">Items - Planning (cprpd1100m000)</GUIRef> session, you can generate a range of clustered items based on a particular plan item (for a range of clusters), or based on a particular cluster (for a range of plan items). If you do this, Enterprise Planning also copies the relevant plan item data.</Paragraph>
		</Note>
	</GeneralSection>
	<RelatedTopics><SectionTitle>Related topics</SectionTitle>
		<RelTopic><Link href="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000300" role="manual">Enterprise Planning, an Overview</Link>
		</RelTopic>
		<RelTopic><Link href="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000339" role="manual">To use clusters for production planning</Link>
		</RelTopic>
		<RelTopic><Link href="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000340" role="manual">To use clusters for purchase planning</Link>
		</RelTopic>
		<RelTopic><Link href="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000341" role="manual">To use clusters in distribution planning</Link>
		</RelTopic>
		<RelTopic><Link href="/baanerp/cp/onlinemanual/000064" role="manual">Distribution planning</Link>
		</RelTopic>
	</RelatedTopics>
</ManualTopic>
