ABSTRACT
The Segmentation Map is a flow chart of the decision and logic that goes behind SCS. In the example that we were working through in Chapter 5, which resulted in Chart 6.3, we were building a segmentation structure. At this point, we need to think through and build this logic map. Chart 6.4 shows the logic chart for the example of Chart 6.3. Following this logic chart, the parts that are analyzed should end up in the proper segments. You should go through the chart and see how the logic flows. Then, once this logic flow has been built, it becomes necessary to turn this into a piece of software. In order to
accomplish that, we need to define what pieces of data are needed. In the example of Chart 6.4, we see data elements needed for each of the decision points, such as:
• Product release date for NPI definition • Product EOL date for EOL definition • Customer tier • Return on Availability
There may be situations where these parameters do not easily fit into your database. For example, if a product is not customer specific then customer tiers will be challenging to identify. In cases like that, we may want to use decision fields like product stability or variability. Instead of having customer tiers as one of our dimensions, perhaps we may want to use categories such as:
• Stable product (low variability) • Medium variability • High or sporadic variability or variability unknown
At this point, our segmentation structuring is defined. Next, we take the entire cleansed parts database (Step 4 of Chart 6.2) and run each SKU through the SCS logic map (Step 5 of Chart 6.2 as shown in Chart 6.4). At this point, we would have classified each of the SKUs and we are ready to test our production processes on each of them. However, before we do that, let us revisit our case examples and see what each of their maps looks like.
