Delta Refresh

Benefits

The Delta Refresh feature of Maximo Inventory Optimization provides many benefits, including:

• Faster data analysis

  • The duration and the volume of the monthly data extracts are significantly reduced when you use Delta Refresh as only the items that changed recently, called Deltas, are extracted and uploaded to Maximo Inventory Optimization. This can be beneficial when you are processing large amounts of data because not all of the data needs to be analyzed. The workloads of the integrated client ERP/EAM system environment and the data transfer pipeline are also reduced.

• More frequent data analysis

  • By default, the inventory data refresh processes of Maximo Inventory Optimization run monthly. If your organization would like Maximo Inventory Optimization to process inventory information that is more up-to-date, you can run the Delta Refresh feature daily.

• Up-to-date data for accurate decision making

  • When the Delta Refresh feature is enabled, Maximo Inventory Optimization processes only the items that changed, therefore your results and recommendations are based on the latest data changes that are in your inventory.
  • By refreshing data more frequently, your Maximo Inventory Optimization and ERP data are better aligned and in synchronization with each other.
  • When you have the most recent data about stock levels and item demands, Maximo Inventory Optimization can help you to adjust and make more frequent decisions in your business processes, which can consequently prevent short-term stock-out levels. The medium-term actions driven from these decisions within your supply chain can also help you to create sustainable improvements for your organization.
  • Up-to-date stock-on-hand values in Maximo Inventory Optimization can allow you to increase the frequency between reviews and enable your teams to take action on the immediate stock out risk areas within their supply chain.

• Improved master data synchronization

  • Newly cataloged items appear on the Maximo Inventory Optimization inventory much faster when delta refresh changes are updated to the system, including any new items that were added to the inventory since the last refresh. When you enable the Delta Refresh feature, you will no longer need to use older data or draft items to predict projected demand for new items. You can see immediate forecasts for new items, rather than having to wait until the end of month data refreshes.
  • Timely detection of stock-outs and unnecessary purchase orders against new records can now also be visible as soon as the Delta sync process is executed. Delta Refresh therefore provides additional visibility during the month for stock-on-hand information and the benefit of taking immediate actions.
  • Analytics are more up-to-date with the latest data changes that are provided by the Delta Refresh feature.

Prerequisites

To enable the Delta Refresh feature, the following prerequisites must be met:

• Your inventory system must be running SAP ERP or MAXIMO EAM. The Delta Refresh feature of Maximo Inventory Optimization is supported to integrate with SAP ERP or MAXIMO EAM systems only.
• To enable the transfer of data, Delta Refresh compatible connectors must also be installed. The connectors are provided with the Delta Refresh service.

Delta Refresh process overview

The following diagram provides an overview of the stages involved in a Delta Refresh operation in Maximo Inventory Optimization:

What triggers a Delta change in the system?

The Delta Refresh feature supports the following types of changes in the system:

Direct

Direct changes are directly made in the ERP master record and are most closely aligned with an inventory record in the Maximo Inventory Optimization. For example, a reorder level is made in the material master record in the ERP/EAM system, then the ERP/EAM system material master record is the main source of data for the equivalent item record in Maximo Inventory Optimization. A direct change can include any type of changes to an item or stock record, for example, a change to the item description or the order level.

Indirect

Indirect changes are those that are made to other types of data that can impact Maximo Inventory Optimization data items. For example, a contract or supplier may charge for an item or a new purchase order could be created that affects the unit price or quantity on order.

The following diagram shows how inventory data changes are handled by the Delta Refresh feature:

More automation options for the Delta Refresh feature

To further automate the Delta Refresh process, REST APIs are available, which you can use to programmatically extract and upload information. Use the Data REST API operations to extract and load your data into Maximo Inventory Optimization and then chose to run either a delta or a monthly refresh.  

Important considerations

Before you decide to use the Delta Refresh feature, review the following notes:

• You can choose to run the Delta Refresh program daily, at a specified time. Ensure that the required inventory data files are always ready in the required location at the specified refresh run time.
• If the files are not available before the Delta Refresh job starts to run, you must wait until the next day to run the daily Delta Refresh.
• If you are using the Data REST API, you can submit API requests to confirm that data is ready for a refresh operation. When you use the Data REST API, you can run Delta Refresh to refresh data at any time.
• The Delta Refresh process is not instantaneous and can take some time to recalculate.

How do you use Delta Refresh?

• To perform the Delta Refresh update, run the Delta connectors to extract updated data from the source ERP system. The delta extracts are exported to a set of CSV files.
• Extracts are uploaded to Maximo Inventory Optimization at a specific time daily through the IBM support system. For an automated solution, extracts can be transferred using the Data Import API automatically, at any time of the day.
• After the Delta Refresh job successfully completes, your inventory data is up-to-date and is automatically uploaded into your Maximo Inventory Optimization system..

More Information

For more information about how you can implement and enable the Delta Refresh feature into an existing deployment of Maximo Inventory Optimization, contact your local IBM representative to organize an IBM services engagement.