Thursday, August 21, 2008

Weekly forecasting

The order point is a "minimum" quantity for the product, and is equal to anticipated demand during the lead time plus a safety stock quantity. Safety stock is insurance inventory to protect customer service from unusually large usage or shipment delays during the time it takes to replenish inventory. When the stock level falls below the order point of 150 pieces, a replenishment shipment would be issued to the vendor.

Each new order point becomes effective at a date equal to the first business day of the week minus the lead time.
So, four business days before the start of week one, if the stock level of the product was less than 497 pieces, a replenishment order would be issued. If the stock level was equal to or greater than 497 pieces, the buyer would leave the item alone because he has plenty of stock available to see him through the first week of the month. The result: The distributor will have this critical item available when their customers want it. Also notice that the order point drops during the period of the month with less usage activity. We are not ordering the material far in advance of when it will be needed. This will help improve the inventory turnover and overall profitability of the distributor.

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