During the course of business, it will be necessary to ask the system to produce a recommended stock order using the information already set up within Stock Management and Purchase Control and taking into account the demand against the parts concerned.
In order to understand exactly how the system has arrived at its recommendations, it is necessary to consider the information contained in the Stock Management on-line help relating to Reorder Categories, Safety Coefficients, Max/Mins, Lead Times, Period Between Orders and Average Monthly Demand. Some information relating to the formulae for these calculations is contained later in this on-line help.
When taking the option to Generate a stock order, the system will ask you certain questions. The answer to these will further influence the way in which the system has selected the parts to be ordered and the quantity recommended. However, these lines and quantities may be increased, decreased or even deleted. New lines may also be added using the appropriate editing functions within the main Purchase Control Form.
The Generate Stock Order form will also allow you to display or print a "Suggested" order to show you what would be ordered if you had taken the option to "Generate" the order. The Display and Print options used without the "Generate" facility, will not update any files whatsoever.
Note:
If you only want to report on the lines which would be ordered, the option Print without "Generate" will fulfill this need. This facility is useful in the following scenarios:
When creating the initial stock order after setup.
Where changes to the system parameters may have an affect on the order generated.
Where the user simply prefers to work with a hard copy.
When a system is first setup, if the 'suggested' order is not acceptable, then amendments (such as lead time, period between orders and safety coefficients all of which effect the maximum and minimum levels), can be made to the system and the 'suggested' order printed. This process can be repeated as many times as required, until the optimum stock order is produced.
It is stressed however, that the 'Generate' facility must be run, so that the order is created, checked and amended as necessary.
Note: During the working day stock quantities move continuously, and any elapsed time between running the options Print or Display and the generated order may result in a different order being generated.
Finally, in addition to using the Display, Print, and Generate options independently, it is perfectly acceptable to Print and Generate simultaneously, thus creating the order and printing a hard copy as well. The report is printed via a format stationery named PC.K99.fs
To access the Generate stock order form:
The PURCHASE CONTROL Menu is displayed.
The Generate Stock Order form is displayed.
The Generate stock order form is displayed when you take Generate stock order form option from the PURCHASE CONTROL Menu.
A Suggested or Generated order can be run using criteria as described below.
Warning: It is possible to keep running the Generate order option and delete the unsatisfactory orders, but this will fill the purchase order files with unwanted data which would not be cleansed until the End of Day routines are run. There is a danger that the purchase files could become full for that day.
The following fields must be considered with care to produce what is intended.
Supplier: Enter the Supplier account code or tick the check box for all.
Tip: A search option is available click the Ellipsis button
to invoke the search. If a specific supplier code is entered, the system will only scan those parts which hold that supplier code on the stock record.
Franchise codes: Enter the Franchise codes required or a tick the check box for all.
Reorder categories: Enter the Reorder Categories required, typically ABC,
or
tick the all check box to include all categories
or
tick the Exclude check box to exclude the reorder categories entered.Tip: It is unlikely that this field would be left blank, as the system would then scan ALL parts including Obsolete, Manually ordered, and Superseded parts, etc.
It is necessary to know how the parts have been categorised in order to answer this prompt effectively.
RADIO BUTTONS:
Top up to: Click to select the appropriate action.
Maximum: If parts are selected on the stock order, then the quantity ordered will top up the level to the maximum quantity shown on the demand tab of the stock record. If the Wait until minimum reached (see below) is also checked, then parts where the stock quantity is between the minimum and maximum levels will be excluded.
Minimum: If parts are selected on the stock order, then the quantity ordered will top up the level to the minimum quantity shown on the demand tab of the stock record.
CHECK BOXES:
Core parts: Tick the check box if the system is only to scan parts where the core part field on the description tab of the stock record is non blank and the core part retention date field is current.
Wait until minimum reached: Tick the check box if the system is only to scan parts where the Main stock quantity is EQUAL to or LESS than the minimum level shown on the demand tab of the stock record.
Note: The system will order up to the maximum or minimum levels dependant upon on which 'Top up' radio button has been selected, taking into account any Supplier back orders, Customer back orders, and Unit buy pack quantities on the stock record.
Thus for a stock record with:
- Main stock of 8
- Outstanding purchases of 3
- Outstanding Customer orders of 2
- Maximum level of 15
- Minimum level of 10
The system would recommend an order of 6, which is 7 to get the maximum, +2 to fulfill the customer orders, -3 to take into account outstanding supplier orders.
Unchecked to allow the system to scan all parts where the main stock has fallen below the maximum level. The system will order up to the maximum level in the above example.
Recalculate discounts: If ticked, the system will calculate the cost of the parts using the discount code and tables, If unchecked the cost will be set using the Latest Cost from the stock record. A tick is the recommended response.
Select cheapest supplier: If the system is using the Best Buy facility, then the program will check to see if the part exists in the Price List file held in the purchase control Multisource menu. If the part is found, the price is compared with the maximum of the Latest cost and Standard cost on the part record. If the Best Buy price is cheaper, then the Supplier from the Best Buy file will be assigned to the part being ordered.
Factor: Multiply MAXIMUM by a factor of. This is to allow a compounding factor of the maximum quantity when ordering, i.e. if the 'multiply maximum by' had been set to a value of 2, using the example above:
The system would order 30 + 2 - 3 - 8 = 21
Cut off date: The date entered here will be compared to the date that parts within the order were last sold. In this way it is possible to exclude items from the order that have not been sold for a long time.
ACTION CHECK BOXES:
Display: To display a Suggested order "check" this box leaving the Print and Generate boxes unchecked. If "checked" together with the Print or Generate boxes, then all the actions checked will take effect.
Print: To print a Suggested order "check" this box leaving the Generate box unchecked. If "checked" together with the Display and Generate boxes, then all the actions checked will take effect.
Generate: Check this box if an order(s) is to be created. If "checked" together with the Display and Print boxes, then all the actions checked will take effect.
PUSH BUTTONS:
Process: This will carry out the requests made above according to the criteria entered.
Exit: Returns you to the main Purchase control menu.
Help: Displays help on the current application in your default company browser.
As soon as the stock order has been generated, the stock cards of the chosen parts will be updated on the appropriate pages.
It is possible to delete the stock order at this stage using the Receive/delete option.
It is possible, by using the main purchase control facilities, to:
Alter quantities recommended for individual parts.
Delete individual lines from the order.
Add further lines to the order.
Print an order
