DRP
The Distributed Resource Planning (DRP) functionality of TimeTrends
includes methodologies for calculating Safety Stock and systems to
deplete or consume the forecasted requirements against existing inventory
and open orders from suppliers.
Safety Stock
TimeTrends Safety Stock
Safety Stock is an additional quantity of inventory intended to
protect against fluctuations in supply or demand. It acts as a
form of stock-out insurance. The TimeTrends Safety Stock module
has been designed to allow system administrators to assign Safety
Stock parameters (minimum and maximum periods, and service level)
that the program can then use in its Safety Stock calculations.
A few advantages of this module are that it can process many Items
at once, and that it can be incorporated into a customer's database
with minimal overhead.
The results can be easily channeled to feed downstream IT subsystems,
formatted reports, Web servers using .asp pages (to view the results
in html format over the Internet), and so on.
Calculations By Product Family
Since all of the Aggregate Items are stored as standard TimeTrends
SKU Items, any operation available for a base Item can be performed
on an Aggregate Item (product family total). These operations can include
statistical forecasting, reporting, "what-if" exploration,
generating product family Seasonality for use with items that don't have
enough historical data to generate meaningful seasonality on their own,
etc. Aggregate Items are visually identified throughout the user interface
and can also be easily segregated via the Filter mechanism described above
for a specifically focused intervention.
Inventory Position
Period ending inventory is a component of the out-of-stock date calculations.
This value is generally automatically updated in the forecast database during
the monthly scheduled data migration update process and is available for other
reporting processes as well. However, the current inventory position, as with
all other data, can be updated at any frequency that you desire through the
scheduling of automated processes.
TimeTrends Inventory Consumption
Inventory Consumption is the methodology by which existing inventory is
consumed by the Forecast to pinpoint the date at which inventory will run
out and, thus, inventory replenishment is required. It is an integral input
to the TimeTrends Replenishment Report (below).
Inventory Replenishment Report
The Distributed Resource Planning (DRP) reports include methodology
for calculating Safety Stock and systems to deplete or consume
the forecasted requirements against existing inventory and open
orders from suppliers.
The results of the Replenishment Report
describe when there will be a stock-out, when a new order must
be placed (taking lead-time into account), the amount currently
on order, on hand and the average periodic usage.
The Safety Stock calculation that feeds this can be changed or
modified to suit the customer's requirements and TimeTrends has
three proven methods that we offer as "jumping off"
points that address various customer requirements.
Other calculations can easily be added upon request. The results
can be used to drive customized reports such as Purchase Advice
Reports, Warehouse Overstock Reports, Warehouse Allocation Reports,
etc. These reports are customized to give you visibility into
the areas that are of greatest concern to you in your day-to-day
business activities.
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