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Days spare stock: this is the leeway in stock. If trade never varied, this could be set to zero to guarantee that enough stock was held to meet all requirements. Even if customers were that reliable, it would mean that trade could never increase. Some experiment may be necessary but the default value of one day is a starting point. Keeping to this value for perishable stock will minimise waste; a higher value for stock with a long life and infrequent delivery will reduce out of stocks. It may be beneficial in some circumstances to increase this. We found that with boxed cakes being delivered on a fortnightly cycle, that on the second week the selection was very poor. While this might be optimal as far as stock is concerned, customers purchasing cake expect a reasonable selection. We found we could increase the days spare stock to seven without seriously affecting waste. Delivery date: This is the date of the next delivery after the current one. For instance, if going to Cash & Carry on a Wednesday morning, and intending to go again on Friday, enter the date for Friday. This is because we need to calculate how much stock to buy on Wednesday, to last through until Friday. Delivery time: This defaults to 12:00 midday, but may be fine tuned if required to any time on a 24 hour clock. Week's credit: This value is needed to calculate the return on capital investment, labelled Yield, in the resultant order. The remaining boxes on the screen are calculated from the figures supplied, and can be ignored. [Previous] [Main] [Next] |
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