Last Time Buy

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Last Time Buy

A Last Time Buy (LTB), also known as End-of-Life (EOL), is the final opportunity for a business to order a component or product from a supplier before its production is discontinued. This strategic supply chain process secures sufficient inventory to support ongoing product operations or service needs for a remaining product lifecycle, preventing business disruptions and managing obsolescence risks. Effective Last Time Buy management involves early identification of End-of-Life products, transparent communication with stakeholders, data-driven demand forecasting, and strong supplier collaboration to ensure smooth transitions and minimize excess inventory.

The Servigistics Last Time Buy capability provides a strategic framework for managing end-of-life product planning. It delivers accurate multi-year procurement and repair projections, enabling organizations to plan for long-term service continuity. Forecasts can be aggregated from multiple sources, supporting comprehensive demand visibility. The system offers time-phased stock level projections that are aligned with service targets, and supports inventory burn down modeling to optimize released inventory from reduced stock levels.

Advanced what-if modeling allows planners to:

• Simulate scenarios involving contract end dates, wash rates, and lead times.

• Save and compare alternate scenarios.

• Identify root causes and drive corrective actions using integrated alerts and exception management tools.

The platform ensures consistency between near-term and long-term planning.

In reference to a Scenario, this is the indicator of how the Scenario is used in the Inventory Optimization Last Time Buy Scenario Workflow. Valid options are:

Option	Description
No	The scenario is not associated with Last Time Buy.
Planning	The scenario is used to calculate Last Time Buy recommended quantities.
Monitoring	The scenario is used to monitor Last Time Buy part levels after Last Time Buy orders are issued.

When creating a scenario, the default value is No.

Inventory Optimization Last Time Buy Scenario Workflow

These are the key aspects of the Last Time Buy business workflow.

End of Production (EOP) Notification

A manufacturer or supplier issues a Last Time Buy notice, signaling the component's impending discontinuation and setting a final order date.

Demand Forecasting

Companies must analyze the demand history and market trends to determine the correct forecasted demand from the Last Time Buy Date through the Last Time Buy Support Horizon.

Planning Last Time Buy Orders

Companies must analyze future demand, production costs, and required service agreements to generate the correct quantity to purchase during the Last Time Buy Support Period.

Last Time Buy Monitoring

During the Last Time Buy horizon, companies must monitor demand and inventory level. This is crucial for gaining early warnings about end-of-life components and accessing viable replacements.

The Last Time Buy Work Queue is the central hub that drives the Last Time Buy Work business workflow. Planners can progress through their workflow by filtering based on Last Time Buy Status and business attributes to perform the following Last Time Buy activities:

1. Creating Last Time Buy SKUs

A Last Time Buy SKU record can be created either through the Gateway or manually on the Last Time Buy Work Queue page, specifying the following required fields

◦ Last Time Buy Date

◦ Support to Date

◦ Repair to Date (if the SKU is repairable)

• A Last Time Buy SKU can only be created at procurement locations.

• A newly created Last Time Buy SKU has a Last Time Buy Status of Unplanned.

2. Generating Last Time Buy Forecasts

Forecast for Last Time Buy SKU can be configured to use any of the external forecast streams that have a Use in total setting of Yes. Each forecast stream can use any of the following Forecasting Methods:

◦ Regular Production Statistical Forecast

◦ Causal Forecast

◦ Scheduled Event Maintenance (SEM)

◦ Life Limited Parts (LLP)

◦ Machine Learning Based On Forecast

◦ Composite Forecast

◦ Profile Based Last Time Buy Forecast

• The Profile Based Last Time Buy Forecast becomes a forecast stream when it is approved.

• Forecast adjustment profiles can be used as required to model any Lifecycle based adjustment.

• The Last Time Buy forecasts can be viewed on the Part Forecast Summary page.

3. Generating and Approving Last Time Buy Orders

There are four steps to follow:

a. Generate Last Time Buy Recommendations

Last Time Buy recommendations are generated by Last Time Buy Planning scenarios. In addition to the regular Inventory Optimization configuration, there are some considerations specific to Last Time Buy planning:

▪ Optimization Set Coverage Segments must include only Last Time Buy SKUs that have Last Time Buy Status of Unplanned or In Progress – Recommendation.

▪ To facilitate comparisons between the Last Time Buy - Approved scenario and Last Time Buy Monitoring scenario on the Part Budget Summary by Procurement Location page, use Fiscal Optimization with the Fiscal Interval set to Quarter when creating the Last Time Buy Planning scenario.

▪ Inventory Balancing Parameters should define inventory sharing within the Last Time Buy procurement locations subnetwork.

The most-recently calculated Last Time Buy Planning scenario to which the Last Time Buy SKU is assigned:

▪ Updates the Last Time Buy Planning scenario link on the Last Time Buy Work Queue page

▪ Updates the Last Time Buy Status to In Progress - Recommendation

b. Review Last Time Buy Recommendations

Last Time Buy recommendations can be reviewed on the Last Time Buy Work Queue page. For further investigation, navigate to the Part Budget Summary by Procurement Location page to view the time-phased forecasts, service, stock levels, and other data through the support horizon.

c. Approve Last Time Buy Orders

Last Time Buy recommendations can be approved or overridden on the Last Time Buy Work Queue page or the Part Budget Summary by Procurement Location page. Upon approval:

▪ The Last Time Buy Status is updated to Approved, and Last Time Buy orders are generated.

▪ The Last Time Buy Planning scenario results are copied to the Last Time Buy - Approved scenario to be preserved for comparison during the Monitoring phase.

The Last Time Buy - Approved scenario is a system-generated placeholder that preserves scenario results against loss due to recalculation.

d. Upload Last Time Buy Orders

The approved Last Time Buy orders must be uploaded to the host system either manually or by using the AutoPilot process. Once uploaded, the Last Time Buy Status transitions to Monitoring, and the SKU should be moved from Last Time Buy Planning Scenario to the Last Time Buy Monitoring Scenario through Optimization Set segments.

4. Monitoring Last Time Buy SKUs

There are three steps to follow:

a. Configure Last Time Buy Monitoring Scenarios

The Last Time Buy Monitoring Scenario tracks the part health of the Last Time Buy SKU after the Last Time Buy orders have been placed. In addition to the regular Inventory Optimization configuration, there are some considerations specific to Last Time Buy monitoring:

▪ Segment must include only Last Time Buy SKUs that have a Last Time Buy Status of Monitoring.

▪ It is recommended to have separate monitoring scenarios by support horizon, such as support horizon within one year, two to five years, six to ten years, and over 10 years.

▪ Inventory Balancing Parameters should define inventory sharing within the Last Time Buy procurement locations subnetwork.

b. Review Exceptions

There are two key indicators to monitor:

▪ Monitoring Horizon Shortage highlights potential shortages throughout the Support-to-Date period. Shortages may also affect service levels across the Last Time Buy horizon.

▪ Monitoring Ending Excess flags possible surplus at the end of the support horizon.

c. Reactivate Last Time Buy

When there are significant business changes, such as extended customer contracts or shortages exceeding a defined threshold, the Last Time Buy process should be restarted by running Reactivate Last Time Buy. This action resets the Last Time Buy status to Unplanned.

Last Time Buy Legacy Workflow

The Legacy Last Time Buy (LTB) feature helps you determine the last time buy quantity for parts that will no longer be manufactured.

A Last Time Buy is triggered when one of these statements is true:

• A product has reached end of production (EOP) and will be discontinued soon

• The part vendor decides to no longer manufacture the part

With performing a Last Time Buy, the planner is faced with the task of assessing the part requirements in the remaining days of the product install base after the Last Time Buy Date, as well as determining the alternative source of supplies. The planner must then recommend a last time buy quantity that is sufficient to cover the needs of the install bases, but that does not cause excessive inventory at the end of the support period.

In considering the end of production (EOP) requirements, it is best to have access to the current and future product installed base information. Unfortunately, most companies do not maintain such data. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an alternate method that can reasonably estimate the future needs. The other critical piece of the EOP planning puzzle is to estimate the part usage decay rate. One common practice for companies is to model the behavior of an end-of-life part with that of a similar or like part. For example, it is reasonable to model the end-of-life behavior of the 10 GB hard drive with those of 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB hard drives which are no longer supported by the company.

For a global company, there is the added complexity of managing Last Time Buys in different geographies, for example US, EMEA, Japan, and Asia Pacific. Each geographical region may have different characteristics and the planners in their respective areas may have local knowledge or special support requirements that cannot be captured by the system. To address this requirement, the Last Time Buy feature provides two modes:

• Top-down, in which the company does a global Last Time Buy at one location and then allocates the quantity bought among the different regions, usually represented by the topmost location in that region

• Bottom-up, where each region performs its Last Time Buy independently

The Last Time Buy feature provides a forecasting method for Last Time Buy parts and their chains so that there is no need for install base information. Preliminary analysis with customer data shows using new profile-based forecasts can significantly reduce the write off. Last Time Buy workflows and exception based management of Last Time Buy parts enable service companies to streamline the Last Time Buy processes and reduce overall operation/maintenance cost. They also provide better visibility for planners to allow them to take proactive actions.

Follow these steps to use the Last Time Buy Legacy Workflow:

1. Manage the Profiles for Last Time Buy.

a. Define the Last Time Buy Profile Parameters that specify how the Last Time Buy profiles are generated by the system.

b. Use one of the following methods to generate the Last Time Buy Profiles:

▪ Generate the profile on the Profile Parameters page.

▪ Create the profile on the Last Time Buy Profile Review page.

▪ Import the profile from another source using the Last Time Buy Profile Management page.

c. Review and approve the profiles produced on the Last Time Buy Profile Review page.

2. {Optional} Use the Shipment Service Factor Profile page to define a shipment service factor (SSF) that indicates the activeness of a particular shipment in a time series manner.

If you have part shipment information for the Last Time Buy part, you can include this information in the Last Time Buy process. When part shipment information is included, the accuracy of the Last Time Buy forecast and recommendation can be increased due to the consideration of historical shipment and warranty periods/failures information.

When shipment service factor profiles are added to the Last Time Buy process, a Shipment Based Leading Indicator (SBLI) forecast is computed for the forecast and can be adjusted when the Last Time Buy forecast is generated (see Step 4).

Then, part shipment information is added to the Last Time Buy recommendation and can be adjusted (see Step 6).

3. Use the Last Time Buy Work Queue to review the SKUs that need a Last Time Buy forecast and recommendation.

4. Use the Last Time Buy Forecast page to generate a Last Time Buy Forecast for a SKU associated with a Last Time Buy Profile. The Last Time Buy Forecast covers the time period from the End of Production to the End of Service.

5. Use the Last Time Buy Decay Rate Parameters page to define the settings that control the Actual Decay Rate calculation used in the Last Time Buy recommendation.

6. Use the Last Time Buy Recommendations page to generate the Last Time Buy recommendation. This uses the Last Time Buy Forecast values and other parameters and inputs to calculate the netted requirements.

7. Monitor the Last Time Buy inventory by reviewing the Review Board records that are generated from the Last Time Buy process on the Lifecycle tab on the Review Board.

8. {Optional} Re-enable Last Time Buy for one or more SKUs on the Last Time Buy Work Queue page.

a. Once a SKU is reactivated, run Last Time Buy processes from the Last Time Buy Forecast page.

b. Generate orders from the Last Time Buy Recommendation page.

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