There are two types of lock periods available in DemandCaster:

1. Internal: This is a lock period applied to all SKU's where the same lock is applied to every item and location with the exact same dates selected.

2. External: This is a lock period applied to a SKU where the source is a supplier and the supplier has a shut down such as Chinese new year. The lock period is shifted at the location out by the transfer lead time of the SKU in order to plan around when the supplier will be shut down and will not ship any product. In this case, you schedule the lock for these SKU's based on the exact date of the shut down at the supplier. For example, in 2019 Chinese new year shut down is from February 3 to February 16th. If the user checks off that the lock is external, then the system will shift the lock period out by the transfer lead time at the SKU.

The following describes the steps to create a lock period.

1. Click on Utilities in top menu bar
2. Click on Lock Periods in second level menu bar
3. Click "Add New" to create a new lock period

1. Enter Name of the lock period you are creating
2. Provide a description if needed. Recommend entering if the lock is internal or external
3. Choose "All Items" to apply the lock period to all items or "Selected Items" to apply to one or a group of items. In most cases it will be only a few items. In this example, we will apply the lock against item 71 in all locations
4. Select either internal or external
5. Specify if the item's lead time should be extended by the number of days in the lock period when the lock period moves within the lead time horizon
6. Select the dates where the periods are locked as described below in Select the Lock Periods step
7. If "Selected Items" is selected, click on the "Filter" tab to open the selection page

1. Click on the weeks or days you would like to lock. Clicking on the week highlights the week to be locked. Clicking the same period a second time removes the period.
2. If the daily Requirement Planning option is enabled, you may select specific days by click on the day in the calendar
3. You may select a different year by clicking on the date.
4. Click "Save" to save the lock criteria.
5. If you have already selected items, the number of items select will be shown here.

Use the filters or search box to select the items required.

1. In the example below, item 71 at all locations have been selected
2. Click "Save selected items" to save the filter.
3. After saving the item filter, click on the "Main" tab to go back to the calendar.

As you can see in the example below, the lock periods set in the week of February 17 has 0 entered for a planned order that week. The requirement that was to be scheduled in those weeks has moved up to the prior week causing the requirement in February 10th. to approximately double.

• Location based lock period freezes a chosen time period for a chosen location across all SKUs.
• One of the frequent reasons to apply this lock period is e.g., a planned maintenance shutdown at a plant (location).
• At the example below, we chose a location Carlsbad Plant and locked the period of June 11^th - June 24^th.
• By locking a location, suggested orders for all SKUs across the chosen location are postponed considering lead time after the system requirements get regenerated (the system will signal about it with an alert in red 'Regenerate system requirements').

When applying a Location based Lock period, please be aware that it impacts the Capacity Planning module. On what it does and how it impacts the Capacity, please read an article How to Create Capacity Planning Lock Periods.