Definition
A product life cycle is the word used for the time that a product (or products) is active and being sold. Life Cycles can be long or short. You can do general life cycle setup in the Global Life Cycle Settings screen. Or, if you know / have some life cycle curves to use, configure them in the Custom Life Cycles screen. Apply them to individual items in the Life Cycle Settings tab of Forecast Manager.
There is an option to also import them en-masse in the New Part Setup import screen.
Long Life Cycles
On a long life cycle product, it is introduced, and then sells steadily for a number of years. When first introduced, one must come up with a forecast for the new item. Often, the life cycle of products similar to the new one (e.g. its siblings in the forecast hierarchy) is the best starting point for this. Using a forecast based on an aggregate life cycle for the first few months of a product's life can make it quick, easy, and accurate to get a product introduced before sufficient demand history exists to generate a forecast algorithmically.
Short Life Cycles
Short life cycles, such as those for products that are involved in fashion / cosmetics / clothing / etc. make life cycle tracking even more important, as it is likely that you may never generate enough history for an item to generate a useful statistical forecast. In these cases, you must rely on a life cycle curve, or pattern, from other items similar to this one, to generate a likely curve for how the item will grow, peak, and decline over its short life cycle - perhaps a 6-12 month life.
Examples of products like this are clothing, phones/electronics, or fad items like toys etc.
In both cases, you can now use StockIQ's Life Cycle features to more accurately forecast your items.
Applies To
All items in StockIQ