Rank API
The purpose of using IBM Sterling Fulfillment Optimizer with Watson is to lower the cost to serve while balancing inventory at network level. In order to achieve this, it is important that right set of ship nodes are optimized for a SKU in an order. This is achieved by using the Rank API.
The Rank API can process a large set of ship nodes to be ranked based on SKU inventory position and cost. The Rank API computes total cost considering shipping cost, capacity cost, processing cost, stock-out avoidance cost and markdown avoidance cost for ship nodes of each item.
There can be multiple carrier options for a ship node. The carrier that has the least residential cost is used to calculate shipping cost at the ship node. Residential cost is defined for weight of SKU and Carrier. Weight of SKU is calculated for 1 unit of quantity when determining the feasible carrier.
Fulfillment Optimizer has offline processes that calculate the capacity cost, stock-out avoidance cost and markdown avoidance cost for a SKU-ship node combination. These calculated costs are used when the input for the Rank API includes a SKU-ship node combination. These offline processes run on hourly or daily basis based on frequency of the data feed.
For an order, the ship nodes for each item are ranked based on the total cost calculated. The
ship node with lowest cost is ranked on top and so on. The top n ship nodes are
then considered by the order management system for further optimization by using the Optimizer API
which accounts for real time inventory positions and node capacity consumption.
Accessing the Rank API
You can access the Rank API from the following URL:
https://<BaseURL>/<tenantId>/otmz/services/rank/nodes/<tenantId>
For more information about the Rank API request and response, see the Rank API topic in IBM Developer.