Allocation Simulator (BETA)

The allocation simulator runs an order or a cart through the allocation engine and shows the decision: which warehouses (stores) the lines ship from, how many shipments that makes, which alternatives the engine considered, and why it ruled out the warehouses it did not choose. Use it to understand a sourcing decision on a live order, to try a rule or a profile before it goes live, or to explore what-if stock scenarios for distributed order management (DOM).

A simulation never writes anything. The order, the cart, and inventory are left as they are.

Open the simulator from Configuration → Allocation → Simulator.

How the allocation engine decides

The simulator shows each run in terms of the engine's stages, as they appear on the Allocation flow chart:

Simulate an order or a cart

1. Enter the id of an order or a cart in Follow an order.
2. Optionally, enter Availability overrides to try a stock scenario (see below).
3. Select Run simulation, or press Enter in the id field.

The simulation runs against current stock and configuration. The result can therefore differ from the decision the engine made when the order was placed - the stock that order was allocated against may no longer exist.

You can also open the simulator directly from an order or a cart. When the allocation engine has placed an order, the order shows an Allocation panel with an Open in the simulator link, and a cart has the same option in its Allocation menu (see preview and allocate a cart). Both open the simulator with the id already filled in and run it straight away. The link carries the id in the URL, so you can share a simulation with a colleague.

Select Clear to remove the result and return to the configuration with no order applied.

Try a stock scenario with availability overrides

Availability overrides lets you replace the available quantity for a SKU at a warehouse for this run only. This is useful for testing a rule - for example, "what happens to this order if the main warehouse runs out?" - without changing inventory.

Enter a JSON array where each entry names a SKU, a warehouse, and the available quantity:

[
  { "skuId": "1003456-42", "warehouseId": "S077", "available": 0 },
  { "skuId": "1003456-42", "warehouseId": "S012", "available": 5 }
]

The given values replace what Omnium holds for that SKU and warehouse. Every other SKU and warehouse uses current inventory. If the text is not valid JSON, the simulator shows an error and does not run.

Read the result

The result is shown in three tabs: Result (what the engine decided), Details (why it ranked the plans as it did), and Allocation flow (the path the order took through the engine).

Result: the plan

The headline says where the order ships from, followed by an outcome badge, the number of shipments, and the number of lines that could not be placed.

Below the headline:

• The plan - one entry per shipment: the warehouse and the lines and quantities it sends.
• Lines that could not be placed - each line no warehouse could serve, with the distinct reasons why (see reason keys).
• Order after allocation - a preview of the order as it would look with the plan applied: which shipments move, which are split off, and which lines travel together. This is a copy of the order; it is never saved.

Details: alternatives and scores

The Details tab explains why the selected plan won.

• Alternatives - shown when the engine found more than one plan. The same plans are listed once per profile, best first. The first plan in each list is what that profile would choose, and is labelled Recommended. The labels Fewest shipments, Cheapest, Closest, and Most likely to deliver mark the plans that are best on that measure across all plans, whatever their rank.
• Scores - each plan's score under each profile, with the score per objective, so you can see which objective decided the ranking. Scores run from 0 to 1 and lower is better, the same direction as rule priority: the plan with the lowest score ranks first.
• Configuration version - the version of the allocation configuration the decision was made against. Every decision records it, so you can trace a result back to the configuration that produced it.
• Trace - the engine's full reasoning, grouped by engine stage, with the warehouse and line each entry concerns. The trace can be long, so it is collapsed by default.

How profiles rank plans

A profile is a ranking policy. It weighs objectives such as number of shipments, distance, and shipping cost in one or more tiers. The first tier decides; a later tier only separates plans whose scores in the earlier tiers are within the profile's tie threshold (0.01 by default). When every tier ties, the plan with fewer shipments wins. The score shown for a plan is its first-tier score, while the per-objective breakdown covers every tier.

The first ranking is always the primary profile, which decides the selected plan:

1. The profile the order requests.
2. Otherwise the default profile in the allocation settings - set globally, and optionally overridden for the order's market or sales store.
3. Otherwise Balanced.

To compare policies, add profiles under Profiles in the Allocation flow filters and run the simulation again - each adds a ranking after the primary one. The plans are worked out once and each profile only orders them, so asking for several profiles costs little more than asking for one.

These are the built-in profiles. A tenant can also define its own profiles; the rankings show them by their key.

Allocation flow: the path through the engine

The Allocation flow tab paints the run onto a chart of the whole allocation pipeline: the stages the order passed, the rules it met, and where each warehouse that was not chosen dropped out. Use it to find the rule or setting that excluded a warehouse you expected to be chosen.

The chart shows the settings for the scope the order belongs to (its market and sales store). Open Filters in the chart header to change what the chart shows:

Use Center to fit the chart to the panel, and Full screen to open it in a larger view.

Run the engine on recent orders

When you do not know which order to look at, or you want to see what a configuration change does across many orders, select Recent orders. This runs the engine over a sample of recent orders and compares each plan with where the order ships from today.

Select Run on recent orders. The Summary shows:

The table lists each order with its outcome, the planned warehouses, the planned shipment count against today's shipment count (Shipments planned / today), and the rules that excluded the most warehouses. Select a row to open that order in the simulator.

Preview and allocate a cart

On a cart, you can run the allocation engine without leaving the cart view, see where the basket would ship from, adjust the plan by hand, and apply it to the cart. Open the cart, go to Order Details, and open the Allocation menu in the toolbar.

The menu shows these items when the allocation engine is enabled globally or for at least one market. Otherwise it offers Preview workflow results instead. The order view has the same Preview and allocate item in the Allocation menu of its order lines.

The allocation dialog

The dialog runs the engine as soon as it opens, against the cart as it is on the page - including changes you have not saved yet. Its result shows the same Result, Details, and Allocation flow tabs as the simulator.

Under Allocation choices you can change what the run assumes, then select Run allocation to run it again:

The cart keeps its own market and store. Only the profile is stored on the cart when you accept the allocation.

Override the plan by hand

Under Order after allocation, drag a line to another shipment to change where it ships from. To move a line to a warehouse the plan does not use, choose the warehouse in All warehouses and select Add shipment first, then drag the line into the new shipment. Reserved or picked lines cannot be moved.

An edited plan is marked Edited by hand. Select Back to the engine's plan to discard your changes. The engine checks an edited plan and refuses it if it is impossible, such as a package split across warehouses. It warns about plans that are possible but go against the engine:

Accept the allocation

Select Accept allocation to apply the plan on show - the engine's plan or your edited one - to the cart and save it. The shipments are moved or split to match the plan. If the plan has warnings, you are asked to confirm first. When there is nothing to apply, for example because no plan was found, the dialog says Nothing was allocated with the outcome, and the cart is not changed.

Select Close to leave the dialog without changing the cart.

Reason keys

Lines that could not be placed and the trace explain each decision with a reason. The same reason keys are returned in the message field of the trace from the allocation API.

Related documentation

• Allocation API - run the same simulation from a checkout or an integration
• Allocation workflow steps - the workflow steps that allocate and reallocate orders
• OmniStock - the store rules that decide which stores can supply a product