The Rules Workbench enables you to assign strategies, rules, and cost group values directly to any number of objects in an assignment matrix.

The Rules Workbench provides you with the following functionality:

• Add, update, or delete strategies, rules, and cost group values in the selection criteria

• Enable and disable selection criteria in the assignment matrix

• Hide and show columns of the strategy selection matrix based on user preferences

• Query where a rule, strategy, or cost group value is assigned

• Assign crossdock criteria to business objects for planned and opportunistic crossdocking SeeCrossdock Criteria for more information on creating crossdock criteria.

The Rules Workbench is comprised of two regions:

• Rules Workbench Tree

  Rules Workbench tree displays a view of all the rules and strategies that are available in the organization.

  In the Rules Workbench, a rule type to view to assign The Rules Workbench contains the following rule types:

  • Pick

  • Put Away

  • Cost Group

  • Planned Crossdock

  • Opportunistic crossdock

  • Cartonization

  Expand the Rule Type node in the tree to see a list of all valid rules and strategies you can use in the organization. The strategies can then be expanded to see the rules that are used for that strategy.

  You can hide the tree from view so that a greater area of the window is available to make the return type assignments.

• Rules Workbench Matrix

  You assign rules to business objects in the rules workbench matrix. You identify the return type, which is a strategy, rule, or value and the name of the strategy, rule, or value.

  You enter the specific strategy to execute, date effectivity, and sequence. The rules workbench uses the other columns to indicate under what conditions each assignment is applicable. You can also make assignments based on supplier, item, item category, transaction type, user, unit of measure, project, and many other objects. The values in each field are restricted to valid values for the organization.

  The organization column always defaults to the current organization and cannot be changed because all rule assignments are organization specific.

Rules Engine Behavior

The Rules Engine evaluates the assignments in the Rules Workbench, after filtering out any assignments that are not enabled or not currently effective. The remaining assignments are evaluated in the user-defined sequence, and the system returns the first return type in which all the values in the assignment match the attributes of the record in the Rules Engine.

If the Rules Engine returns a strategy instead of a rule, then the system evaluates the rules in the strategy in sequence. If after the Rules Engine evaluates all the picking or putaway rules in a strategy, and the allocation is not wholly allocated, then the remaining quantity remains unallocated. If the system cannot find a cost group rule in the strategy, then the system uses the default cost group for the subinventory. The Rules Engine never attempts to retrieve a second strategy from the Rules Workbench. If it cannot find a match then the system uses the default picking and put away rules for the organization, and the default cost group for the subinventory.

Rules Engine Simulator and Rules Execution and Trace

The Rules Engine Simulator and Rules Execution Trace windows list the strategy assignment that was selected by the Rules Engine, by displaying the Rules Workbench within the respective windows and highlighting the selected row.

   How to use the Rules Workbench:

1. Navigate to the Rules Workbench.

2. Select the rule type to use to view assignments.

   The types that are available are pick, put away, cost group, opportunistic crossdock, and planned crossdock.

3. The Rules Workbench is folder enabled so that objects not applicable to your organization can be hidden to make defining strategy assignments easier. For example, project and task would only be used in a project manufacturing organization.

   Note: Validation on defining a folder has been enabled to ensure that you do not hide fields for which any assignments have already been made for that rule type. For example, you cannot make a strategy assignment to the Destination Subinventory object, and then hide the Destination Subinventory column.

4. Enter the Sequence.

   Sequence controls the order in which the strategy assignments are evaluated. The sequence must be unique within the rule type and organization.

5. Enter the return type. You can enter a strategy, rule, or value.

6. Enter the return value. This is the name of the rule, strategy, or cost group.

7. Enter any of the following combination of values to assign your rule or strategy. These parameters determine how the rules engine returns suggestions for allocations. The available values are:

   • Organization

   • Customer

   • Item

   • Item category

   • Item type

   • Assignment group

   • Source subinventory

   • Supplier

   • Order type

   • Freight code

   • Project

   • Task

   • User

   • UOM

   • Transaction action

   • Destination subinventory

   • Transaction reason

   • Transaction source

   • Transaction type

   • UOM class

8. Enter the Date Type. This determines how long the rule or strategy remains active. If you choose something other than ALWAYS, optionally enter a from and to date for the rule or strategy to remain active.

9. Select the Enabled check box. You can enable or disable each return type. The Rules Engine evaluates only enabled rows, and you can modify or delete only disabled rows.

10. Save your work.