First, the model runs some preparations. Then, two optimization engines are launched, one named Simulation, which defines the initial state of the optimization, and one named Optimization which performs the actual optimization. In the end, the postprocessing is run. The duration of the run depends mainly on the size of the input data in the scope.

Once a model has been run, the Results step contains the following tabs:

Impact

This tab displays comparisons between the values of the last historical period and the first forecasted one. There are seven portlets in the dashboard, described below.

The scope of the impact dashboard can be set, using the user inputs on the left panel.

• Overview portlet provides a summary of changes in the shelf prices using the optimized values.
  
  

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• Self Price Change portlet is a histogram showing how many prices increased or decreased.
  
  

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• Revenue Breakdown portlet outlines what are the levers that explain the revenue change between the last and the next period.
  
  

  Newly sold products will end up in “New business”, when products not sold anymore are part of “lost business”.
  ”Price effect” shows the decreases of revenue due to price decreases when “volume effect” represents increase to volume.

• Competition Positioning portlet displays the spread of the percentage difference of prices between the optimized shelf prices, by product and store for next period, and the competitor prices. It is useful to see how much the competition objectives set in the Configuration step could be reached by the Optimization Engine.
  
  

• Channel Gaps portlet displays the spread of the difference of channel gap between any channel and the reference one for any product and channel for next period. It is useful to see how much the channel objectives set in the Configuration step could be reached by the optimization engine.
  
  

• Average Stock Coverage portlet displays the evolution of the stock coverage, meaning the number of days before running out of stock. It is useful to see how much the stock coverage objectives set in the Configuration step could be reached by the optimization engine.

• Revenue and Margin portlet displays a historical chart, with a different color for the forecasted periods.

Details

The Details tab effortlessly displays the results tables for the user to interact with. Different aggregations are provided: global, by product, by product and store, and by product, store, and period. The user inputs allow filtering of all the data provided in the tables.

Each table provides values for all the fields that are interesting at this level of granularity. The values provided are the last historical period and the earliest forecasted one, plus the delta between the next and the previous period. If needed, you can export these tables to Excel.

For the record:

• previous period means the last historical period;

• next period means the first forecasted period.

The forecasted waterfall for the next period is also displayed in this tab.

Glassbox

This tab’s target audience is Configuration Engineers, Business Analysts, and team members working on improving a new optimization model. The tab provides insights to understand how the Optimization Engine reached its final state. One needs to understand the main concepts of the Optimization Engine to benefit from this dashboard. Two interesting pages to help users are OE Glossary and Explainability (Glassbox).

There are three portlets about criteria satisfaction: Satisfaction, Satisfaction by Criteria Type, and Criteria Comparison. The whole goal of the Optimization Engine is to satisfy criteria. These charts enable the user to assess at a glance whether or not the engine was successful at it.

Refer to Glassbox Dashboards for more details.

Influencers Tab

This tab’s target audience is Configuration Engineers, Business Analysts, and team members working on improving a new optimization model. One needs to understand the main concepts of the Optimization Engine to benefit from this dashboard.

The user is able to select a value finder, know its dimensions coordinates. The chart displays information about the criteria in relationship with the selected value finder. The complete documentation is in Value Finder - Criterion Influence.

Evaluation

This tab simulates the evaluation logic that can be called from any other module. One row represents one visible element of the logic. The query that can be done from any other module of the partition is:

Any of the second parameter keys are optional. The outputs depend on the provided keys. See the details.