Oracle Retail Knowledge Base

Build the LPO application

5 min read

Context

Runbook to build the LPO application after Push data to AIF Apps is validated. Every job below runs on the AIF APPS Standalone schedule. The two UI-driven parts have their own notes — Build the LPO business rules and Set up the LPO forecast.

Order: load the files, run PRO_MASTER_ADHOC_PROCESS, set the business rules, set up the forecast, then create and optimize the runs.

Quick access

Open a job in POM

Steps 1, 2 and 3 all run this way — only the process name and the parameter string change.

  1. In POM, click on the top left menu.
  2. Select the sub menu Tasks and then Batch monitoring.
  3. Select the AIF APPS scheduler, and then the Standalone chain.
  4. Using the filter box at the top of the Standalone list, type the process name for the step you are on and click on the matching process. Do not click the “play” button yet.
  5. Select the job under the process.
  6. Click Actions and then Edit Parameters, paste the parameter string, and save with OK. Skip this when the step takes no parameters.
  7. Click Run, then refresh until the status reaches Complete.

1. Load LPO-specific files

Season, season period, season product and price ladder do not come through RI — they are staged directly into AIF Apps.

  1. Prepare the staging files and zip them into ORASE_WEEKLY_ADHOC.zip:
    • PRO_SEASON_STG
    • PRO_SEASON_PERIOD_STG
    • PRO_SEASON_PRODUCT_STG
    • PRO_PRICE_LADDER_STG
  2. Upload the ZIP using File Transfer Service (FTS).
  3. Run INPUT_FILES_ADHOC_PROCESS with no parameters. Takes about a minute.

2. Load seasons and price ladders

PRO_MASTER_ADHOC_PROCESS moves the staged data into the PRO_* tables. Same one-character-flag pattern as RSE_MASTER_ADHOC_PROCESS.

On a from-scratch implementation, run -A (process all steps) — Oracle describes it as the best option for the initial processing of the LPO module, and it guarantees nothing is missed.

The four steps matching the files loaded in 1 Load LPO-specific files:

FlagStep
-sSeason
-dSeason Period
-PSeason Product
-LPrice Ladder

These steps are also mandatory — without them LPO has no demand parameters to optimize against. They read no implementation file: they derive from the data already pushed from RI, so they run fine even though only the four files above were loaded.

FlagStepWhy it is required
-iInventory AggregationWithout inventory the LPO runs fail
-CPrice and Cost for Promotion/MarkdownTicket price and cost, used by the min-cost rules
-ePrice ElasticityPrice effect in the demand model
-bBaselineBase demand
-ySeasonalitySeasonality curve in the demand model
-DModel DatesItem start date, picks the seasonality partition
-rSales ReturnReturns parameters, when returns are in scope

Full ~30-flag list: Operations Guide — Master Data Load - LPO.

Steps reading interfaces that were not loaded — planned promotions, forecast adjustment, warehouse allocation, flex facts, regular-recommendation variants — will fail. The Operations Guide documents two ways to handle this rather than listing the wanted flags one by one:

  • Repeating a flag after -A toggles that step off. -AbP runs everything except Baseline and Season Product.
  • -R <flag> resumes from the step matching that flag, running it and everything after it.

Expected failures are not documented

Oracle documents -A, the toggle and -R, but not what a step does when its interface file is absent — whether it errors and stops the chain, errors and continues, or skips silently. Confirm the behaviour on the first run and record which steps failed, then decide between toggling them off or resuming with -R. Never toggle off a step from the mandatory table above.

Check PRO_SEASON, PRO_SEASON_PERIOD, PRO_SEASON_PRODUCT, PRO_PRICE_LADDER and PRO_PRICE_LADDER_DTL before moving on.

Next, before creating any run: Build the LPO business rules, then Set up the LPO forecast.

3. Create and optimize the runs

Only after the business rules are final and the forecast is approved and mapped to LPO.

  1. Run PRO_OPT_CREATE_RUNS_ADHOC_PROCESS with the FORCE option, which creates the LPO runs for all merchandise and location/price zones.
  2. Run PRO_OPT_ADHOC with no parameters — the ad hoc job already includes every step needed to calculate the optimization results. (The Implementation Guide walkthrough mentions a -batch option, but the Operations Guide job reference states no parameters are used.)

Recommendations land in PRO_RUN_RECOM_OPT_RESULT.

Validate LPO structures

select * from PRO_SEASON;
select * from PRO_SEASON_PERIOD;
select * from PRO_SEASON_PRODUCT;
select * from PRO_PRICE_LADDER;
select * from PRO_PRICE_LADDER_DTL;
select * from PRO_RUN_RECOM_OPT_RESULT;

An empty PRO_RUN_RECOM_OPT_RESULT means the optimization produced no recommendations — check the PRO_OPT_ADHOC job log in POM.

Reference

Graph View

Backlinks