Lots
Buyers can define lots that contain a collection of lines, giving a hierarchical structure to the sourcing document. A lot may be an assembled product or lines may be organized into lots to obtain the most competitive bid. Suppliers are required to evaluate the entire lot and place a bid at the lot level for speed and convenience. Suppliers may optionally provide line-level bids as well.
Buyers analyze the bids and make award decisions at the lot level. When the buyer creates a purchasing document from the award, awarded lots are transferred to purchasing document lines.
Groups
Negotiation lines can also be organized into groups for ease of analysis and award. Groups are collections of related lines that allow buyers to model market baskets.
Suppliers bid on individual lines within the group, and pricing information is automatically rolled up to the group level for enhanced analysis. Buyers can analyze and make award decisions for the entire group, or they can choose to select the best supplier bids for individual lines within the group. Awarded lines are transferred to the purchasing document, if the buyer created one from the award.
Creating lots and groups
A lot is a complete negotiation line on its own. As such, it can have line attributes, price factors, and any other characteristics a negotiation line. A group is simply a named collection of negotiation lines. Groups have no attributes other than price (which is the sum of all its line private values). Lots and groups must have at least one subordinate line defined. You cannot imbed lots within groups or groups within lots. You can add independent lines into lots and groups (although you cannot move a line with a backing requisition into a lot), and you can move lot lines and group lines into other lots and/or groups. See Adding Lines to a Negotiation for details on defining lines, lots, and groups to a negotiation.
Processing lots and groups
Suppliers can respond to a lot at the lot level (required) and at the lot line level (optional). Suppliers cannot respond to groups, only group lines, and they must respond to each individually. See Submitting a Bid or Quote Online for details on how suppliers respond to lots and groups.
You award lots at the lot level (you cannot award individual lot lines). You can award groups at the group level or individually award group lines. See Awarding in different ways for information on how you can use lots and groups when making award decisions. See Awarding Business in an RFQ or Auction for details on awarding lots and groups.
Once your award decisions have been made, you can create purchase documents. When a purchase order is created:
The whole lot is created as a single purchase order line.
Each group line is created as an individual purchase order line.