Default settings for generating orders
Hi,
When generating orders to reduce the likelihood of staff incorrectly pressing OK with ALL Stock Locations and ALL Suppliers selected I would like to propose the following:
Default settings changed to -
Stock Location NONE
Supplier NONE
Generate orders for stock
- at or below critical levels
All Stock Locations and All Suppliers would still remain on the drop down menu but at the bottom rather than as the default.
This would mean that staff cannot proceed forward with generating an order without selecting the stock location or the supplier.
In most cases generating orders would be at or below critical level rather then below ideal levels so I feel this should be the default.
Thanks,
Asha Stott.
Re: Default settings for generating orders
I am not sure about the Default Stock Location settings or supplier settings but I would argue that the default should generate ideal levels....
Personally opinion is if you are always using critical levels then you have a problem with the way you have configured stock management.
Can I ask the problems you are experiencing?
Also maybe a description broadly of how many stock locations and how many esci ordering interfaces you use might be appropriate.
In my case we use 1 esci supplier but have 2 locations...but we only order into 1 and restock the other from the primary location.
Sincerely
Ben
Re: Default settings for generating orders
I too have Ben's concerns about the critical quantity, and totally agree with him that if thing are set correctly, then one should reorder to the ideal level. Really sexy stock control systems have the ability to set re-order quantities from the usages rates and lead times. Ours does not and hence you need to set the ideal level bearing in mind usage rates and lead times.
Regards, Tim G
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Hi Ben and Tim,
I am not sure I agree with your logic. The Ideal level has always been used as the basis for how many to order not when to order. The critical has always been the level at which you trigger an order. Setting a suitable critical is the key to good stock management. If you use ideal and you order today because below ideal and the order comes in and say takes it to exactly ideal levels the next sale will trigger a new order . This is not typically what practices want to happen and doesn't represent good stock management ?
Cheers Tony
Re: Default settings for generating orders
I disagree - and maybe its a terminology thing...but at no point do I ever want my stock levels falling into a place I have defined as critical..
We order twice weekly. our orders are typically small but we dont pay freight so we ordering in this manner only burdens our supplier and we can keep our stocks value lower because we dont have to store a lot of product.
I have only used critical levels in June ...when I try and drop stock value for stock take.
Overall tho I take Tony's point...but perhaps I think that the wording for ideal and critical is incorrect...using the setup Tony defines
it should be Ideal Stock Level and Reorder Level. remove critical completely or add a new parameter to the stock control.
Then you have a standard order and a critical order.
Ben
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Oh and regarding reordering after a sale...I do want that to happen. Most small practices dont have any stock "out the back" so if I have 2 bags of a particular food on the shelf and a client buys 1 I want to reorder on the next order i place with my supplier to ensure my shelf stays looking full...I guess you could argue my Ideal and Critical qty are the same...but that just doesnt sound right does it?
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Hi Ben,
That is actually correct and how it should be setup. i.e critical and ideal the same if you want to continually resupply on use of a product.
I agree nameclature could be changed to make it more obvious what the critical level refers to. Despite this suggest default ordering should be critical not ideal as currently most of not all practice sI know have to change thsi default before generating orders which is a PITA.
Cheers Tony
Re: Default settings for generating orders
I think that part of the problem here is one of nomenclature. As I said in an earlier post, a sexy system looks at supplier lead times and usage rates. OpenVPMS does not, but we can still consider these when setting the critial and ideal quantities.
Consider as system where the usage rate is 2/day and the supplier lead time (ie time between us placing the order and the supplier delivering) is 7 days.
Here the critical level would appear to be 14 (ie the lead time x usage rate). However, we probably want to add a couple for safety. Note that the critical level is essentially the stock level at which, given our usage rate and the supplier lead time, we will run out of stock on the day that the order arrives from the supplier.
We can set the "stock level to re-order to" - what we call the ideal level, on the basis of our useage rate AND our re-order frequency. If we only do an order run every 4 weeks - then we should set the ideal level to ( re-order interval x usage rate) = 28x2 = 56.
Note that in this ideal system the average stock holding is 1/2 of the ideal qty - ie 56/2 = 28.
If it is desirable to reduce this, then the re-order interval needs to be reduced.
Of course, stock usage is never uniform - hence the real world is somewhat more complicated. However, the above logic does give some guidance as to how to set the stocking levels.
Regards, Tim G
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Sorry for the late response - just following up with this now.
So... Do we all agree that the default should be at or below critical levels? :)
Asha
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Unfortunately I dont agree - despite what Tony outlined above I still prefer the way we are currently doing it IE each order replaces our usage to replete our stock levels up to the ideal levels.
The idea that by default we wait until stock hit a defined "critical" level is only something I would do if I were a large company with large stock levels, or I was trying to wind back stock levels pre stocktake.
That being said I will accept whatever the overall consensus ends up being
(and change it back for our local version) :)
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Is it possible to make this a configurable option so that everyone can be happy?
Re: Default settings for generating orders
http://www.openvpms.org/project/user-preferences
This project is the one that would add this sort of configuration option while it is not included in the specification I suspect it could be
Tim A to comment?
Re: Default settings for generating orders
I have always thought about it as Tony describes and that is the way we have it set up. I vote yes for defaulting to at or below critical levels. If it's going to be configurable I would have thought that it would be better to set it at the practice or stock location level rather than the user level. Surely stock control would be same no matter which user was doing the ordering?
Matt Y.
Re: Default settings for generating orders
How about the following:
Does the terminology for ideal and critical need to change?
Re: Default settings for generating orders
I actually dont think the terminology needs to change - its accurate.
There are two modes of thinking regarding stocking
Hence there are 2 order methods
The first mode is "Order up to a predefined level(the ideal level)" the stock level using this mode is a lot lower...and you order more frequently - for practices that have low freight charges and regular deliveries this is suitable I suspect.
The second mode is "Only order if it falls below a defined level(the critical level)" In this case I imagine the running stock quantities would need to be higher and allow for lead times. In this case the defined level is indeed the critical level at which if an order doesnt get sent then you will run out soon. Practices that want to have less frequent delivery might use this mode
There are probably other mixes to consider.
I think the changes you have outlined are an ideal compromise.
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Hi Tim,
The changes outline above:
is a suitable comprimise for all.
However, I just thought I would point out that since I posted this initial discussion changes have been made in version 1.8 where the stock location defaults to the location you are logged into which has been a significant improvement and this area I feel does not need to be changed. The default for supplier is still ALL but we are not experiencing the same issues we were initally so again I do not feel this needs to be changed.
Regarding the terminology if you are to change my suggestions would be:
Ideal changed to Maximum Level and
Critical changed to Reorder Level.
Thanks,
Asha.
Re: Default settings for generating orders
My contribution is as follows:
a) "maximum level" sounds like something goes wrong if the stock level exceeds this. This is the stock level that the system re-order up to. As per the earlier discussion it represents a stock level that is safe - ie if prior usage patterns continue then you should not run out of stock.
b) "reorder level" sound like it could be either the level at which you should reorder or the level the system reorders up to. The term 'critical level' says it all - if you do not reorder when the stock drops to this, then your are likely to run out before the ordered stock is delivered.
I do like the concepts of Ideal (reorder to this) and Critical (gonna run out if we don't order now). However, I thought to consult Mr Google who led me to:
This implies that if you are going to use 'Maximum' as the re-order to level, then we should use 'Minimum' as the reorder-at level. See also http://www.lokad.com/min-max-inventory-planning-definition and http://www.tradegecko.com/blog/calculating-safety-stock-levels
Note however, that the term 'minimum' is itself somewhat misleading - because unless the supplier delivery times are zero, the stock will drop below the minimum level in the prior between ordering and delivery.
Summary: Changing Ideal to Max is OK but to be logical we should also change Critical to Min.
Regards, Tim G
Re: Default settings for generating orders
If the terminology on the Generate Orders is changed, the Ideal Qty and Critical Qty nodes of Product Stock Location should also be updated to reflect them.
If there is no great desire to change the terminology, and the only change required is to add a Practice level setting to pre-select Ideal or Critical, then I'll JIRA it for 1.9.
Its a small enough change not to warrant a project.
-Tim A
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Great thanks Tim - Changing the terminology is not essential.
Re: Default settings for generating orders
Raised as OVPMS-1618