The Automatic Replenishment system in The BUSINESS EDGE will help with creating documents more efficiently. Any range of products can be selected by Product Code, Description, Classification or Alternate Product Code. For Vendor specific products you can generate a batch for a specific vendor as long as a single primary Vendor is assigned to a Product.
The Automatic Replenishment system can create Purchase Orders, RFQs, Processing Purchase Orders, Work Orders and Transfers.
This system is located in multiple locations within The BUSINESS EDGE
* Purchase Order System, Purchase Order Reports, Automated Replenishment System
* Inventory System, Re-order Point System, Re-order Point Reports, Automated Replenishment System
Available Quantity Calculation:
In the Automatic Replenishment System, the Available quantities will include On Hand, On PPO, On PO, On Work Order, On Transfer, to Customer Orders, to PPOs, To Work Orders, and To Transfers.
Document Logic:
The report chooses the document with the following logic (assuming that the product’s Auto Replenishment type is set to “System Suggest”):
1. If there are no PPO Definitions, it is a Purchase Order.
2. If there are PPO Definitions, and no Process Definitions, it is a Processing Purchase Order
3. If there are PPO Definitions and Process Definitions, it is a Work Order
4. If there are no PPO Definitions and there is extra quantity at another branch (enough to not bring that branch below its re-order point) and the current branch can transfer from the other branch, then it is a transfer.
5. If the document is a Purchase Order and there is no default vendor for the product, then the document is an RFQ.
6. If the document is a Purchase Order and there are multiple Vendors assigned to the Product then the document is an RFQ and all assigned Vendors will be selected.
7. If the document is a Purchase Order and there are Vendors assigned to the Product Classification then the document is an RFQ and all Vendors assigned to the Classification will be selected.
Edit Auto Replenishment Options
The first set of options can be defaulted in the Automatic Replenishment Maintenance area and can also be changed on the fly when using the ARS System
Default Traverse Bill of Materials – Yes/No – If you choose yes, the system will find all products that are made from the product that the report is analyzing and then figure the availability based on the documents that are open for the secondary-components (and all of their secondary components). This slows down the report, however is very useful for companies that use PPOs or Work Orders. If you do not use PPOs or Work orders, it is best to answer No to this option.
Default Re-Order Point Logic:
§ Use Re-Order Point Logic – this assumes that all re-order points for all products are correct (including ones that are zero). When the available is less than or equal to the re-order point, it will appear in the lists. The re-order point needs to be entered for each product.
§ Ignore Zero Re-Order Points – this allows the client to set items that they do not want to purchase to have a “0” re-order point. This report will ignore items that have Available > Re Order Point. The re order point needs to be entered for each product. We suggest having the Re Order Point at -1 for items that you do not wish to maintain inventory.
§ Set Re-Order Point to -1 – this forces the re-order point to -1 and only shows products that are needed to be ordered due to requirements being above the current available. This logic will show products that are not going to meet customer demands for the date of the ARS.
§ Use Stocking Objective Logic – this uses the Stocking Objective and Max Stocking Objective (both are defined as Months) to calculate the ROP and Max Stocking Objective . If either the ROP or Stocking Objective is a negative number, the system will not calculate a new ROP or max qty to stock (this is how you tell the system to not purchase an item that has been discontinued). The calculation is as follows:
ROP = Stock Obj x Usage
Max Qty to Stock = Max Stocking Objective x Usage)
There is an option to leave the Max Stocking Objective for each product to “System Default” in which case:
Max Qty to Stock = Stock Obj x Usage x Max Stocking Objective System
Re-order point values: -1 means order when there is a customer demand,
0 means order when out of stock, >=1 means re-calculate reorder point.
Quantity to Calculate
§ Max Qty to Stock (> Min Purchase Qty)
This will set the quantity to place on the document to bring the Current Available to the Max Qty to Stock (and also above the Min Purchasing Quantity). The max quantity to stock and minimum purchase quantity need to be entered for each product.
§ Max Qty to Stock (ignore Purchase Qty’s)
This will set the quantity to place on the document to bring the Current Available to the Max Quantity to Stock (ignoring the Min Purchasing Quantity and the Optimum Purchasing Quantity). The max quantity to stock needs to be entered for each product.
§ Bring Avail to 0
This option will set the quantity to place a document so that the Available is zero once the document is received in.
Round Quantities to – The system figures an exact quantity needed to fulfill the needs based on the “Quantity to Calculate” option, however, it will assume a quantity based on how your stocking unit of measure is setup.
If you maintain Packaging Quantities (either as part of the vendor contract costs) or as the “Package Quantity” for the product, you can have the system set the re-order quantity to a multiple of one of these quantities (the system will use the vendor’s package quantity if you maintain a package quantity for that vendor, otherwise it will use the package quantity for that product).
Use Buyer Logic – The products have the option of assigning a user to them so that the individual user can review and place their own orders. If you do not want to use this logic, then choose No. Buyers are setup in Enter & Edit Inventory, Additional Information.
Default Incoming Inventory Logic – There are two choices – 1. Force Incoming to Today which will assume that any PO/PPO/WO/Transfer will be received today, or 2. Use Incoming Inventory Document Dates which will assume that you need to worry about the timing of the documents and you want to order more if your stocking level falls too low while waiting for the next incoming receipt.
Incoming is Considered “Late” after – This is only used if the Default Incoming Inventory Logic is set to “Order More if Late.” Fill in the # of calendar days that if a receipt is late, it will not cause you to re-order more product.
# Months Usage – Fill in the # of months to look back at sales history to generate an estimate of future usage. The future usage is used to project out the estimated date needed. Please see note below on Estimating Quantities. This is also used with the “Use Stocking Obj Logic” to figure the average usage.
Use Usage for Qty Needed & Date Est – If you want the system to estimate what date the product will be needed (based both on current documents AND projected usage), then answer Yes. If you want the system to just estimate the date the product will be needed based only on current documents, then answer No.
Max Stocking Objective System Default – This is used with the “Use Stocking Obj Logic” as an option that each product can be configured to use the “System Default” for the Max Stocking Objected (used to calculate the Max Qty to Stock) to just be a multiplier of the Stocking Objective instead of an actual number of months.
Default Cut-off Days – fill in the number of days you want the ARS to look at. If you want to purchase (run the ARS) once per month, set this to 31-40 days.
Show on PO Summary Screen – Select whether you want to see the Date Due or the Days until Needed
Sort Purchase Orders by – Select whether the POs should be sorted by vendor name or by the Days until the PO is Due.
Estimating Usage
The system projects out the future usage based on the past [# Months Usage for Forecast] months.
If the “in warehouse” level drops below the Re Order Point before the cut-off date, then the ARS system will suggest re-ordering the product.
The “in warehouse” level is figured by taking the current warehouse level, adding in incoming inventory documents, subtracting out outgoing inventory documents, and subtracting out the “estimated usage”.
The “estimated usage” is the average daily usage, but existing documents will decrease the estimated usage.
For instance, if the daily usage is 20 pieces, and you have a sales order for 200 pieces, the system will zero out the estimated usage for
Prepare Products for Replenishment
The first set of options are defaulted from the ARS Defaults.
The next sets of options are not defaulted and can be changed for each ARS Batch
Type of Document –Request for Quote, Purchase Orders, Processing P.O., Work Order, All, Request for Quotes and Purchase Orders, or Transfers (Branch Enabled systems only). The default is All.
Cutoff Date - If the date the inventory is needed is beyond this date, then the product will not be put on the report automatically. This is for companies that take large future orders, but don’t want to place a PO to their vendor until closer to the needed date. The system defaults to Today + Default Cut-off Days. If your projected inventory level falls below the Re Order Point by this date, then the system will place it on a Re-order document.
Specific Default Vendor - If you need to run the ARS for a specific default vendor, you may choose a vendor at this time. If not, all vendors will be chosen. This is very useful for vendor specific products but the Vendor must be assigned to the Product as the default vendor or the Product will not be included.
Select Documents for Products
Items that need replenishment will be presented in a scrolling box along with the document that needs to be created, the date the product is needed, the current available and the quantity that The BUSINESS EDGE calculated that should be on the document. The system will automatically bring the User to this screen after preparing products for replenishment. After exiting, users can continue to work on the selected products at anytime while the batch is in process through the Select Documents for Products selection from the menu.
Using the Fkeys, you can switch the document type for the highlighted scroll line. In order to switch a product to PPO or WO, there must be PPO and/or Process definitions attached to the product.
If you select a scroll line, you are brought into an editing screen where you can change the Vendor, Buyer, Quantity and Cost to put on the document. You also have immediate access to a product inquiry, edit the stocking values and also edit the vendor list (if the Product is on a RFQ document). The Product can also be deleted from the list by pressing or clicking the Tab.
If you want to remove an item from the list, you can also use the F5=Sel/Un to select it on the list. When you exit the report, the items selected will be removed from the list.
The first set of Fkeys are to move one product at a time to different documents. The F10=More allows the user to change all POs to RFQs and all RFQs to POs. Users can also Un-select all products. There are more fkeys to also reset the document type for all products in the list and also to remove all the buyers from the list (so that there is only a single buyer for the list). You can also remove the vendor list (vendors that will get RFQ’s) – this will leave the primary vendor only to get the RFQ.
Edit and Send RFQ's
You are brought into a scrolling box of products that are planned to have RFQ’s created for them. You can drill into each item and edit the vendor, buyer, quantity, and vendor list. The last column will show how many vendors you will be requesting a quote from. If that number is zero you have not yet selected any vendors for that product and therefore an RFQ will not be generated
When you exit this list, you are brought into the summary by vendor; alternately you can press F3 to see a summary before exiting. If an item is not assigned to a vendor nor has a vendor list, then it will not be included in the vendor list. You can drill into each vendor and edit the Fax Number, the person you want to send the RFQ to, the e-mail address of that person, and other pertinent information.
When you exit the above list, you are brought into the transmit options for the RFQ, see an example on the next page. Depending on the format of the RFQ you are using, the system will ask about including a cover page on a Fax, whether to fax, e-mail and/or print the RFQ. You must answer Yes to the final Question to create the RFQ. Otherwise, you will be brought back out to the menu and then they can re-peat the above process. All changes that were made are permanent and will be saved until the list is re-created or the document is created.
If you answer No above to Create Request for Quotes, no RFQ’S will be created and you can come back and edit them at a later time.
Once the documents are sent you will be provided with a summary showing the document numbers that were created in The BUSINESS EDGE.
Edit and Send Purchase Orders
When you are ready to process your Purchase Orders the routine is very similar to RFQ’s except for the fact that you may want to do more editing of a Purchase Order to make a minimum for example
There are Fkeys that allow you to do many things. You may create just one PO by highlighting the vendor that you want to send the PO to.
You can remove all the Vendors / PO / Products that are below Min PO Amount.
You can remove all the Vendors / PO / Products that are below the Free Freight Amount.
You can remove all the Products that are for stock and not absolutely needed at this point.
This allows you to run the ARS for all your products using ROP logic, and then if you don’t have time to go through everything, just keep the products that are needed for customers.
You can drill into each vendor and edit the pertinent information. If you delete the vendor, all items that are associated with that vendor will also be removed from the list.
Once you are done with the vendor information, you are brought into the list of products associated with that vendor PO. You can drill into each of those and edit the information. There are more Fkeys to allow you to push the product to RFQ, PPO or Work Order.
You can also get a list of more primary products for the vendor or more products by that vendor that are not already in the ARS listing. When you select these Fkeys, you will be prompted for how to sort the products – either as the available as a % of the ROP (how close the product is to re-ordering) or as the available as a % of the usage (how close the product is compared to its customer usage).
When you exit the vendor list, you are brought into the transmit options for the POs. Depending on the format of the PO you are using, the system will prompt questions about including cover pages on Fax, whether to fax, e-mail and/or print the PO. You must answer Yes to the final question to create the P.O. Otherwise, they are brought back out to the menu and can then re-peat the above process when ready to proceed. All changes that are made are permanent and will be saved until the list is re-created or the document is created.
Edit and Send Processing Purchase Orders
The process for the Processing Purchase Orders is very similar to the Purchase Orders. You are brought into a scrolling box of products that will be issued a PPO You can drill into each product and change the vendor and quantity.
When you exit this list, you are brought into the transmit options for the PPOs. You will be prompted for the number of copies to print of the PPO, PPO Picking Ticket and the PPO Packing List. You must answer Yes to the final question to create the PPO’s. Otherwise, they are brought back out to the menu and then they can re-peat the above process. All changes that were made are permanent and will be saved until the list is re-created or the document is created.
Edit and Send Work Orders (Manufacturing Clients only)
You are brought into a scrolling box of products that will be issued a WO You can drill into each product and change the vendor and quantity.
When you exit this list, you are brought into the transmit options for the WO’s. You will be prompted to print the traveler and the number of copies they want. You must answer Yes to the final question to create the Work Orders. Otherwise, they are brought back out to the menu and then they can re-peat the above process. All changes they make are permanent and will be saved until the list is re-created or the document is created.
Adding to the Automatic Replenishment System on the fly while entering a Sales Order
Similar to using the F8 – Set PO function when entering an Order there is now a F2-ARS key. When entering a Sales Order the Product you have selected can be added to an “Order ARS” batch. Upon exiting the Product you can choose to create your documents or build the batch and process it at a later time.
This feature is very useful when you are entering a Quote to a Customer. You can create an RFQ and send it out immediately from within the Sales Order, ensuring a quick turn around to get back to your Customer with a Quote.
You can also build up your RFQ’s throughout the day and then process them later and send your vendors fewer RFQ’s with more line items to quote.
Re-Order Point System Maintenance
Calculate Re-Order & Max Qty to Stock
This program allows you to mass change a range of inventory products to all have the same ROP objective (in months) and the same Max Qty to Stock (in Months). You also get to choose the date range to use for figuring usages.
Change Inventory Stocking Criteria
This program allows you to mass change a range on inventory products to all have the same exact packaging quantity, stocking objective and/or lead time.
Figure Inventory Stocking Criteria / Stocking Criteria System
This program has a more complex criteria for re-calculating the Re Order Point, Stocking Objective and Max Quantity to Stock.
The first basic program created to use this logic is the Figure Inventory Stocking Criteria which will work on a limited basis and assumes that all products are treated the same.
These features allow you to create different stocking levels (stocking objective in months, Max Qty to Stock and Re-order point) based on how many customers buy the item and how many times customers buy the items – all definable by number of months of usage.
The Stocking Criteria System allows you to put in different criteria for different product ranges, along with defining Special customers that require higher stocking levels. You can also mark specific customers to be ignored by this recalculating program.
These are exciting new features that are close to being released to clients. We are currently undergoing testing to make sure they function properly.
Auto Replenishment Batch Inquiry
This program lists all the individual batches created by the ARS. The user selects the type of ARS document and the date range of the documents created.
From the scrolling box, the user can select one of the batches and see the documents that were created. By drilling into the individual document, the user can edit the fax number, e-mail address, and attention person.
For RFQ’s and Purchase Orders: By highlighting a specific document and using the Re-Send One fkey, the user can re-submit to the fax, printer or e-mail a single document (for when one document had a bad transmission). By choosing the Re-Send ALL fkey, the user can re-submit all the documents for this batch to the fax, printer or e-mail (useful when the fax line was not working).
Auto Replenishment Maintenance
Open ARS Batch Inquiry
This lists all the ARS batches that different users are working on. You can delete different batches that are old and need to be re-run by using the Remove Batch Fkey.
ARS Completed Batch Inquiry
This lists all the ARS Batches that have been created. It allows you to resend the documents and see what documents were created and when.
Edit Auto Replenishment Messages
You can enter specific messages to appear on all RFQs and POs that are created by the ARS. Additionally, you can enter a cover page message for POs that are faxed or e-mailed. Finally, there is a message that will appear on PO lines that are being bought for negative available products (these are more critical items that you may want faster notification if the vendor cannot supply immediately).
Edit Auto Replenishment Options
Here is the place to enter the main options when running Prepare Products for Replenishment. These are the defaults that the system will use when you start a new batch.
The # Months Usage is used for when the ARS is used with the Calc Re-Order Based on Usage and Stock Obj option. It is the number of months of usage to use to figure the average usage of the product.
There are also options to show the date the PO item is needed or show the number of days until it is needed.
Finally, there is an option to sort PO’s by Vendor Name or by Days Due. If you sort by Days due, the PO’s will be listed in the order that the hottest item on the PO is due.