Replenishment

Overview

The MySales Replenishment module will help you effectively maintain stock levels and offers the following functionality:

• Forecasting the necessary orders volume (for today and future);

• Automatic calculation of the required safety stock;

• Formation of supply diagrams for setting order schedules;

• Automatic calculation of the calendar of orders and deliveries;

• Automatic generation of orders on a daily basis;

• Automatic or manual confirmation of orders;

• Automatic or manual sending of orders to the supplier;

• Automatic optimization of orders by the amount and quantity;

• Correction of stocks and orders;

• Automatic calculation of orders for picking, cross-dock, and reorder point;

The Replenishment module generates an auto-order based on the sales history, forecast and SKU stock balances taking into account the main influencing factors and limitations (parcel, min. order, presentation stock, etc.) individually calculated for your business. Auto-order is automatically recalculated and adjusted on a daily basis.

The general scheme of the auto-order system workflow:

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Auto-order calculation formulae

In the system, the order is calculated using the following formula. It is valid for any type of goods.

 Order = max( round( Forecast D1D2 + Write-offs D1D2 + Safety stock D1D2 + Presentation stock - Stock D1 ), Shelf days limit),

where Forecast D1D2 - sales forecast in the period between the first and second delivery. If delivery occurs in the morning, then the day of the second delivery is not taken into account, if delivery occurs in the evening, then the day of the first delivery is not taken into account;

 Write-offs D1D2 - waste or write-offs forecast the goods with expired shelf days terms in the period between the first and second delivery. If delivery occurs in the morning, then the day of the second delivery is not taken into account, if delivery occurs in the evening, then the day of the first delivery is not taken into account;

 Safety stock D1D2 - recommended safety stock for a week multiplied by min( 1, sum of day coefficients D1D2 ), D1D2 - days between the dates of the first and second delivery. If delivery occurs in the morning, then the day of the second delivery not taken into account, if delivery occurs in the evening, then the day of the first delivery is not taken into account;

 Presentation stock - minimally necessary product stock;

 round - rounding the order to the required multiplicity of the package;

 Shelf days limit - the maximum amount of goods that can be ordered in order to have time to sell it before the expiration date. If the goods are ordered in packages, then the minimum % of the package that must be sold before the expiration date is determined in the parameters;

 Stock D1 - stock at the time of first delivery;
 Stock D1 = max( 1, Stock O1 − Forecast O1D1 - Write-offs O1D1 + Goods en route O1D1 ),

where Stock O1 - stock at the time of the first order;

 Write-offs O1D1 - waste or write-offs forecast the goods with expired shelf days terms in the period between the first order and the first delivery. If delivery occurs in the morning, then the day of the first delivery is not taken into account, otherwise, it is taken into account;

 Forecast O1D1 - sales forecast in the period between the first order and the first delivery. If delivery occurs in the morning, then the day of the first delivery is not taken into account, otherwise, it is taken into account;

 Products en route O1D1 - The amount of goods that will be delivered to in time period between the first order and the first delivery.

Formula calculation example:

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Order days are shown in green, delivery are blue.

 O1 - first order date 28.07.2017;
 O2 - second order date 01.08.2017;
 D1 - first delivery date 30.07.2017;
 D2 - second delivery date 03.08.2017;

Suppose the delivery takes place in the morning, the presentation stock = 1, the multiplicity of the package = 1,
safety stock = 2.

Stock D1 = max( 0, 5 −(2+1) ) = 2 Stock D1D2 = 3+3+1+2=9 Safety stock D1D2 =

 Order = Round( 9 + 1.5 + 1 − 2 ) = Round( 9.5 ) = 10.

Formation of warehouse orders for picking and cross-dock diagrams:

• Cross-dock - warehouse order is calculated as the rounded sum of orders for all stores. If the order is less than 70% of parcel, then order is rounded down, if more - up.

• Picking - warehouse order is calculated using the formulae above, but for a certain horizon ahead (2-5 weeks), taking into account future sales forecasts. A future warehouse order will be equal to the sum of future orders from stores to the warehouse. And previous orders are calculated as goods en route.

Order formulae for ingredients (sub products):

 Order of Sub Product = Check_expiration_date ( Round ( Forecast D1D2 Master Product * Qty + Safety Stock D1D2 Master Product * Qty + Presentation stock Master Product * Qty + Stock D1 Master Product * Qty -

(Stock D1 Sub Product - Forecast D1D2 Sub Product - Safety stock D1D2 Sub Product - Presentation stock Sub Product) +
+ Forecast D1D2 Sub Product + Safety stock D1D2 Sub Product + Presentation stock Sub Product - Stock D1 Sub Product ) )

, where Qty - is the quantity of the sub product in the specification for one master product;

, (Stock D1 Sub Product - Forecast D1D2 Sub Product - Safety stock D1D2 Sub Product - Presentation stock Sub Product) - the design is necessary to take into account in the order formula the assumption that the stock of the sub product can be used both in the production and sale of the sub product as a separate product and there is a need to provide this product with additional stock. If this construction after calculation gives a value less than zero, then it is automatically equalled to zero.

Business processes for working with orders

Data input

Manual orders adjustments

It is performed by the auto-order administrator in the following cases:

• Moving of planned delivery dates for pending orders, in case when information is received from the supplier;

• Closing orders that will not be delivered by the supplier and are not yet subject to the automatic closing rule;

• Correction of orders that did not pass according to the criterion of supplier’s restrictions (minimum order by amount/quantity);

• Correction of cross-dock orders, where due to the fact that X% restrictions (parameter) of warehouse packaging must be claimed by stores, the system was not able to optimize the amount of stores orders due to mathematical restrictions;

• Delivery adjustment if the supplier informed about the replacement of an item in the order;

• Entering manual orders to ensure acceptance of goods in the store in case of an error in entering the receipt;

• Orders for items that are not goods, but consumables and are not ordered based on the forecast.

Out of stock analysis

For each category of goods, a standard for the level of accessibility should be set, expressed as a percentage. For those categories where this norm is not maintained, it is necessary to conduct an analysis as described below.

The inventory analyst performs the following actions on the goods in the assortment range:

• Generates a report on missing goods, where % of stores are calculated for each product, where the product is OOS at the end of the day;

• For top products in the list, details the report at the store level;

• Finally analyzes the reasons for the OOS. Possible reasons:

  • Short delivery - communication with the supplier, disabling the “Order” checkbox on temporarily not ordered goods;

  • Write-offs - communication with the store;

  • Lack of package data - adding package data in the system;

  • Lack of bindings - communication with the administrator of directories about creating bindings;

  • Insufficient order - analysis of sales, balances, created orders and forecasts.

• For top positions with "insufficient order", an additional analysis of the forecast and the sufficiency of the safety stock is carried out, as described in the MySales documentation.

The need for such a detailed analysis for top positions is due to the fact that working with exceptions, this allows you to detect systemic problems and fix them not for single positions, but for all.

Stock surplus analysis

For each group of goods should be set rate of turnover in days. For those categories where this norm is not met, the inventory analyst daily generates a report on inventory turnover, as well as on goods not to order for the next 30 days.

For top products that do not meet the norm for turnover in days, a detailed analysis of the reasons is carried out.

How to make orders

There are three types of deliveries in the auto-order system:

• Direct delivery - the order is made directly from the store to the supplier and delivery occurs directly from the supplier to the store;

• Picking - stores order goods from warehouse, not directly from the supplier (warehouse became a supplier for stores). And the warehouse orders goods from the supplier. Orders from the store to the warehouse and from the warehouse to the supplier are not interconnected.

• Cross-dock - stores order goods from warehouse, not directly from the supplier (warehouse became a supplier for stores). And the warehouse orders goods from the supplier. But unlike in picking, store orders from warehouse and warehouse orders from supplier are connected. Since during the cross-dock, the supplier brings all the necessary goods to the warehouse, and the warehouse immediately distributes it to stores (without storing them).

In order for orders to be made, you must first create order diagrams. More detailed information about creation of diagrams for each type of deliveries is provided below.

In general, the process of order making can be described by schema:

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Required data

This section describes which data is used by the system to make an order.

To form an order, the system needs some mandatory data set.

Data received from the customer:

Data received from the MySales

If some of this data is missing or incorrect, the system will either not make an order or the order will be incorrect.

Direct delivery

For direct delivery - goods, delivery schedule, parcel and minimum order for each store are clearly specified for the supplier

Direct delivery schema:

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Cross-dock

For cross-dock delivery - goods, delivery schedule, parcel and minimum order for each store are clearly specified for the supplier. Order from warehouse will be a summing order from all stores taking into account parcel and minimum order of warehouse.

Cross-dock delivery scheme:

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Picking

For picking deliveries - goods, delivery schedule, parcel and minimum order for each store are clearly specified for the warehouse. And from warehouse to the supplier separate orders are made.

Picking delivery scheme:

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Pick to zero

Pick to zero is a kind of picking delivery in which stores pick up the entire warehouse stock. The key difference is that during picking, the warehouse delivers exact amount of order to each store. In the case of Pick to zero, after the formation of store orders, the stock of the warehouse is checked. If the remained stock is larger than total store orders, then it is added to store orders.

The remaining warehouse stock is distributed among stores relative to the orders that were originally created - the larger the order - the more residual warehouse goods will additionally fall into the store order. Also, this scheme is subject to a parcel multiplicity limitation - because of the parcel multiplicity, it may be that this distribution will be corrected.

Work with diagrams

Creating diagram

Diagrams creation is the first step in working with auto-order. To create a new diagram, go to the "Diagrams" page and click on the "Add a new diagram" button. After clicking, the window for adding a diagram will open. Consider an example of adding a chart. By default, the window for adding diagram looks like this:

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When adding a diagram, the user fills in the following fields:

• Name - the name of the diagram;

• Source warehouse - warehouse selection in case of cross-docking and picking deliveries;

• Supplier - selection of a supplier;

• Contract - selection of a supply contract;

• Receivers - selection of stores to which delivery is made (in case of diagrams from the supplier to warehouse - choose warehouse as receiver)

• SKU - selection of items to be delivered;

• Type - selection of the type of delivery intervals (in case of deliveries in the morning - it is necessary to put a tick next to "Morning"):

  • Week - adding a schedule in a weekly format - convenient if the order is repeated on fixed days of the week, for example, every Tuesday and Thursday;

  • Month - adding a schedule for specific days of the month if, for example, the order is repeated on the 3rd and 17th of each month;

• Interval - select the interval for repeating the order schedule. If the value is 1, then the schedule will be repeated every week or month, if 2 - every two weeks, and so on;

• Orders and deliveries schedule - selection of days when order will be made. In the day cell, user enters value between the order and delivery in days;

• +D1 forecast - additional D1 forecast coefficient. The forecast of the next day multiplied by coefficient +D1 will be added to the regular D1 forecast;

• +D1D2 forecast - additional D1D2 forecast coefficient. The forecast of the next day multiplied by coefficient +D1D2 will be added to the regular D1D2 forecast;

• Requires confirmation - an indication whether it is necessary to confirm the order manually, or whether it will be sent automatically;

• Auto confirm orders at - if manual confirmation of the order is selected, in this field you can specify the time when the order will be automatically confirmed (optional);

• Separate promo items - if you check the box, in the case when there are positions in the order according to this diagram where the promo falls within the D1D2 period, the promo positions will be moved to a separate order. And according to one calendar there will be two orders - one without promo positions, and the other only with promo positions.

• Promo requires confirmation - an indication of whether it is necessary to confirm the separated order with promo positions manually. If in the same diagram the checkbox "Requires confirmation” is not checked, the “Separate promo items” checkbox is not checked, but the “Promo requires confirmation” checkbox is checked, then the order will not be automatically confirmed;

• Minimum order quantity - minimal quantity that can be ordered;

• Minimum order amount - minimum order amount in money;

• Email - list of email to which orders will be sent (usually email of suppliers' managers);

• Edit permissions - the choice of which fields can be edited in the order;

• From - selection of the start date of the diagram;

• To - selection of the diagram expiration date (optional);

After filling in all the fields and clicking the add button, the system automatically creates a separate diagrams for every store (in the case of cross-dock, additional diagram is also created for orders from the warehouse to the supplier).

The specifics of creating diagrams for direct delivery:

In the case of direct delivery, the user selects the supplier, leaving the "Source warehouse" field empty.

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The specifics of creating diagrams for cross-dock delivery::

In the case of cross-dock delivery, the user first selects "Source warehouse", then selects the Cross-dock format, and only then selects the suppliers. Also, in the case of a cross-dock diagram, the user must specify the delivery schedule for both stores and the warehouse. The user does not need to create a separate diagram for warehouse, the system does this automatically.

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The specifics of creating diagrams for picking delivery::

In the case of picking delivery, the user also first selects "Source warehouse", then selects the picking format, and only then selects suppliers. Also, in the case of picking delivery, the user has to create diagrams for the warehouses. This is done in the same way as creating a direct delivery diagram, but user chose warehouse as receiver.

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+D1/+D1D2 Coefficients

+D1 forecast and +D1D2 forecast coefficients are used to increase the order at stores.

So, the coefficient +D1 adds to the D1 forecast the forecast of the next day multiplied by the coefficient +D1, and +D1D2 adds to the D1D2 forecast the forecast of the next day multiplied by the coefficient +D1D2. The coefficients can be fractional, for example, the coefficient 0.5 add only half a day, and not a whole one to the order

The coefficient +D1D2 is used to increase the safety stock of the warehouse. In the field with this coefficient, the user can indicate for how many days it is necessary to increase the safety stock of the warehouse.

The coefficient + D1 is used to increase the order of convenience stores, in case it is necessary to add more night sales. It can also be used if, for example, the goods should arrive in the morning, but the supplier delays delivery (for example, the goods should arrive at 9 am, but arrive at 11 - accordingly, these two hours of sales must be taken into account in the order).

"Morning" Parameter

In the diagram, the user must indicate whether the goods arrive in the morning. This is done using the checkmark "Morning". Depending on whether the order arrives in the morning or not, the calculation of the order changes directly.

If goods are delivered in morning:

In the D1 forecast, the delivery day D1 is not taken into account, since the goods will arrive in the morning of the day D1. And in the D1D2 forecast, D1 is taken into account and D2 is not taken into account.

If goods are not delivered in morning:

In the D1 forecast, the delivery day D1 is taken into account, since the goods will arrive only in the evening of day D1, and it is necessary to take into account the sales of day D1 in the order. And in the case of the D1D2 forecast, day D1 is not taken into account, and day D2 is taken into account.

Also, the system, regardless of the morning orders, takes into account the day of the order in the calculations.

Editing diagram

The user can edit some fields of the diagrams. There are two ways to edit:

• Using the menu (to open the menu, press  in the row with the diagram). After selecting "Edit Diagram", a window similar to the diagram creation window will open. The user will be able to edit active fields;

• Directly from the table with diagrams - for this you need to scroll to the right until editable fields appear. After entering new values, click anywhere on the page to save them.

In the case of cross-dock diagrams, if the user needs to add a store to the cross-dock he should press  button and select "Add store".

Calendar recalculation

If there is a need to recalculate orders and deliveries calendar (diagrams have changed, etc.), user can do this manually by clicking on the  button and selecting "Recalculate Calendar".

Also, calendars are automatically recalculated during automatic calculation of orders every day (or at the launch of the “Orders recalculation” batch).

Diagrams Import/Export

For convenient work with diagrams, there is possibility to export and import diagrams.

In order to export diagrams to a file, click on the  button.

In the case of importing diagrams, the user needs to prepare a special file in csv format. The fields in the file are similar to those that are filled in when adding a chart from the interface. The chart import file template can be found at link.

Detailed description of all fields of the diagram import file:

• NAME - diagram name;

• WHS_ID - warehouse ID in MySales system (filled only for picking and cross-dock diagrams);

• WAREHOUSE_TYPE - warehouse type - value “c” for cross-dock and “p” for picking;

• SUPPLIER_ID - supplier ID in MySales system;

• SPECIFICATION_ID - contract ID in MySales system;

• RECEIVERS - list of stores (or warehouse) IDs for which delivery will be made. Values should be comma separated (leave empty if ALL_STORES is 1);

• ALL_STORES - value "1" if delivery is for all stores and "0", otherwise;

• SKUS - a list of products IDs which will be delivered. Values should be comma separated (leave empty if ALL_SKUS is 1);

• ALL_SKUS - value "1" if all products are delivered under the contract and "0", otherwise;

• TYPE - type of schedule (schedule on a weekly basis or for a whole month) - the values of the field "W" for the week and "M" for the month;

• MORNING - morning delivery identifier - “1” if delivery occurs in the morning and “0” in other cases;

• INTERVAL - the repetition interval of the delivery schedule (1 - every week / month, 2 - every two weeks / month, etc.);

• RPM_DAYS - days in which the order will be made, should comma separated. From 1 to 7 for the weekly format (where 1 is Monday, 7 is Sunday) and from 1 to 30 for the monthly;

• DELIVERY_DAYS - the number of days between order and delivery for stores. Should be filled for each order day from the field RPM_DAYS (comma separated);

• DELIVERY_DAYS_WHS - the number of days between order and delivery for warehouse. Should be filled only for cross-dock orders;

• PLUS_D1_FCST - +D1 coefficient;

• PLUS_D1D2FCST - +D1D2 coefficient, at the store level;

• REQUIRES_CONFIRM - store orders manual confirmation indicator - "1" must be manually confirmed, "0" - the order will be automatically confirmed;

• AUTOCONFIRM - time of automatic confirmation of the order - only for orders with manual confirmation (optional field);

• WHS_REQUIRES_CONFIRM - warehouse orders manual confirmation indicator - "1" must be manually confirmed, "0" - the order will be automatically confirmed;

• SEPARATE_PROMO - indicates if promo items should be separated from the main order;

• PROMO_REQUIRES_CONFIRMATION - indicates if separated order with promo items requires confirmation;

• MIN_ORDER_QTY_STORE - minimum store order quantity;

• MIN_ORDER_AMOUNT_STORE - minimum store order amount in money;

• MIN_ORDER_QTY_WHS - minimum warehouse order quantity (only for cross-dock);

• MIN_ORDER_AMOUNT_WHS - minimum warehouse order amount in money (only for cross-dock);

• SUPPLIER_EMAIL - supplier manager email

• ALLOW_EDIT_ORDER - edit of order quantity permission - the value "1" allows editing, "0" prohibits editing;

• ALLOW_EDIT_STOCK - edit of stock quantity permission - the value "1" allows editing, "0" prohibits editing;

• START_DATE - diagram start date (in the format YYYY-MM-DD);

• END_DATE - diagram expiration date (in the format YYYY-MM-DD) - optional field, leave empty if the end date is open.

Work with calendars

Manual event

The user has possibility to create manual events in the calendar. These events are separate from those calculated by the system based on diagrams and occur only once.

To add a manual event, click on "Add a custom event" on the "Calendar" page. After clicking, the window for adding a new event will open:

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A manual event is a single event with established dates for ordering and delivery. It cannot be repeated. Order and delivery occur only once.

Manual event import

User can load SKUs for manual events from an Excel file.

In order to load SKUs for a manual event from a file, go to the form for adding a new custom event, select the "Manual" type, enter all the necessary data and click the "Add" button. After clicking, the SKU selection window opens:

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In this window press  button.

The import file must contain two fields:

• SKU_ID - SKU number in MySales system;

• ORDER_VOLUME - required order volume.

Product import file template for manual event can be found at link.

Confirm/Cancel event

Any event can either be confirmed or canceled. If the event is automatically confirmed (setting when the diagram was created), or it has already been confirmed, the user can cancel it. Similarly, the user can confirm an event that requires confirmation.

To Confirm/Cancel events, you need either check or uncheck the box in the line with event:

Mass cancellation of events

Events can be canceled in bulk for a specific date. For example, all deliveries to the warehouse on Tuesday are canceled. The user can select the events needed to cancel, or cancel all events for the selected date.

To select the desired events, the user have to check the box . in the line with the desired event. The checkbox column is located behind the Actions column at the end right.

After the required events are selected, click  above the table and select "Cancel Event".

Orders recalculation

User can recalculate orders for the selected event (orders are recalculated for the diagram). To start the recalculation, click on  in line with event.

Such a need may arise if a manual event has been added, or the order has been manually adjusted for cross-dock diagrams. For example, if you change an order from a store to a warehouse, then you need to start recalculation so that the system recalculates the order from the warehouse to the supplier and this needs to be done only for one event (if there are a lot of events, it’s easier to start the batch and recalculate all orders).

Work with orders

On the page with Orders, the user can perform the following actions regarding the created orders:

• View order details

• Confirm deliveries

• Mark delayed orders

• Export to Excel

• Cancel order confirmation