Summary of Mars-IW Features

This is a feature that gives you the ability to periodically check to see if stocked items should be deleted from the list, and also to look for candidates that are currently non-stocked, but that should be added to the list.

 

This feature allows the user to create a series of blanket orders (or rolling forecasts) that span any time period.  The system recognizes that the early orders will not contain items that are in sufficient stock position, but these items will appear in subsequent periods as the forecast anticipates their reduction.  Additionally, seasonality is reflected in the orders as they progress forward in the year.

 

This add-on module allows a buyer to schedule vendor review cycles and events, quickly review vendor to actual goal and run all Mars-IW functions.  The desktop displays the current month calendar with the current days vendors scheduled for review.

Comments, up to 254 characters can be assigned to an item, which can then be accessed during the ordering phase.  Comments can also be assigned to vendors and seasonality indices.

 

This is a feature that is available during the actual ordering cycle, whereby you can see how much of a product should be ordered when there is a special “one-time” buy opportunity at a discount.  The system calculates the optimum point, where the saving associated with buying one more item is offset by the carrying cost of that item.  Stated differently, if you were to over-ride the system and buy one extra item than recommended, by the time the item sold, the original savings would have been eaten-up by the carrying cost.

 

This feature uses the same logic for optimizing a one-time buy for a single item, but automatically applies it to an entire order.  It therefore can also create an optimum buy-in order prior to a price increase, which is mathematically equivalent to a one-time discount.

 

This is the Economic Order Quantity feature that takes place at the time of creating an order, assuming that you activated the feature in the “system parameter” screen.  When MARS-IW decides that a given SKU should be ordered, it then checks via a fairly complex calculation if extra product should be ordered to avoid added put-away costs.  The calculation provides the optimum point whereby the carrying cost of the extra product perfectly offsets the cost of putting it away. 

 

One of the key strengths of the MARS-IW system is its orientation to exception viewing only.  During the ordering process, the system will check to see if the prior history has any characteristics that warrant human intervention.  If so, the system puts an “A” in the flag field.  Additionally, the system monitors the month-to-date sales, and if this figure is above or below the normal band of variation, it also puts an H (for high) or an L (for low), in the flag field.  The concept is if none of these three fields exist, the item is behaving well both historically and in the current month and should be accepted without any human viewing.  Accordingly, if you click on the “exceptions only” button on the upper far left of the “pre-select” screen, you will see only the exception items that had an A, H, or L in the flag field.  The same thing can be accomplished after the order is created by clicking on the bar towards the lower part of the order screen.

 

Under certain circumstances it may be desirable to override the MARS forecast with an externally developed forecast.  This need may come about because of a special promotion that has no historic precedence, or to make use of a forecast derived by the host computer that comprehends some special criteria.  In this case MARS will accept the externally imposed forecast in place of the one it has calculated, and will use it to calculate the reorder target.  This forecast override takes precedence over the MARS forecast.  MARS does not simply order in that amount immediately, however, but rather it incorporates the forecast into the reorder calculation exactly as if it was MARS’s own forecast.  Consequently the forecast could be shown for a few months into the future and MARS would not order product until the month in question started to enter the reorder calculation period.  The months that contain the forecast override appear highlighted in yellow on the item detail screen for quick identification.

 

This feature is activated in the “Systems parameter” screen.  It insures that at least one item will be ordered if the net available is zero even if the sales history is zero. The logic behind this selection is that if an item has been selected as being stocked, then it should have a quantity of one on hand regardless of the sales history.  This action avoids the condition where the item is selected as being stocked, but since it is new and hasn’t sold, it is never ordered.  This feature may also be set to be bypassed.

 

This feature allows you to force an order to either a higher level, or lower level to meet some pre-established total order size.  Moreover, you can set the determining factor as weight, units, volume or cost.  If the system is forcing the order to a higher level than the system originally wanted, it will review the entire file, and bring in items that were close to being reordered originally, rather than simply adding quantities to the items that were in the original order.  If the system is being forced to reduce the order, it will take product out that has the least adverse impact on future order fill rates.

 

This feature allows you to introduce a new item but use the history of an old item.  For example, assume that a new item is replacing an older item, and you expect that about 70% of the sales will immediately go over to the new item. This feature will allow you to modify the history accordingly.  Additionally, the feature allows you to modify the prior sales history of an established item by a given  percent or quantity.

 

The “item maintenance entry” screen allows you to modify or maintain a wide variety of variables via the PC rather than in the host computer.  For example, if you do not have a seasonality index or a lot sizing field in the host system, you may wish to maintain this information via the PC.  If you have the need to input data into the PC for a high number of SKUs, it becomes very handy to be able to simply hit a button that automatically steps the system to the next item without having to go through the full select routing.  This is accomplished by the presence of the (<<>>) button that comes up on the screen as soon as the first item is selected.

 

During the ordering cycle the system will determine for an item being ordered if palletizing or some other fixed multiple consideration must be taken into account.  If activated, it will round the quantities up as needed and place a “P” in the flag field.  The actual pallet (or carton) quantity must be in the item record for every item.  The system will recognize both “mandatory” palletizing as well as “subjective” palletizing (it is desirable to have full pallets but not mandatory) and will handle them accordingly.  See Charlie’s book for a full discussion of this issue.

 

The system monitors the period-to-date sales, and if this figure is below the normal band of variation for that item, it will put an “L” in the flag field.  If it is above the normal band of variation, it will put an “H” in the field.  This feature highlights if an item is “taking off” in the current period, and therefore requires some extraordinary attention, or if it is dropping suddenly, thereby also indicating required action. Incidentally, there is a field in the “systems parameter” field that establishes the number of days that have to pass in the current period before this feature is activated.  This figure is defaulted to 10 on the theory that prior to this many days the system could be sending out too many false signals.  You may increase or decrease this figure, but be sensitive to its implication.

 

This feature handles the situation where the vendor has price breaks within an SKU that is a function of the quantity being ordered (e.g., one item will cost $10 each, but only $8 each if 10 or more are purchased, and $5 if 30 or more are purchased).  You can load these price schedules into the system as a download from the host, or directly into the PC.  MARS will then find the optimum quantity, trading off the conflicting variables of savings and inventory carrying cost.

 

Random promotions are ones that can occur randomly throughout the year and therefore can not be incorporated into the normal seasonality concepts.  This feature allows the user to set the past years promotions into the seasonality indices so that the system can “deseasonalize” the historic data, then set the anticipated promotions into the coming twelve months so the system can anticipate the increased demand.

     

This management report highlights all items where you have less than a given (user set) number of days supply on hand.  In contrast with the typical “out-of-stock” report, which is alerting you too late, the hot report indicates items where you are going to be out of stock unless action is taken.  It is pro-active rather then reactive.  An added feature allows you the option to assume that the on order is treated as if it's actually on hand when making the determination.  This way it will not highlight an item that is low in supply, but product is on the way, and no action is really needed.

 

This report is an overview of the inventory in a very descriptive way. Including inventory value and period supply information.  It is discussed at length in Charlie’s book and should be made a standard part of the management reporting output.

 

This report is the opposite of the hot report and highlights the items where too much stock is on hand.  It is activated by setting the number of months supply on hand, over which you want to see the items.  There is a parameter in the “systems parameter” screen to set the number of days that should pass from the introduction of the item in the system before the report is activated for that item.  It defaults to 60 days but is adjustable by you.  This feature prevents a brand new item from being highlighted before it has had a chance to create sales history.

 

The entire concept of handling seasonality in MARS-IW works on having a seasonality index prepared for each family of products that have similar traits.  This is discussed at length in Charlie’s book.  Seasonality indices that have been established outside the system can be inserted by using the first of the two seasonality icons.  If it is needed to create a seasonality pattern the second icon brings up a sub-routine that allows you to create a pattern from historic data.  The data can be keyed in month by month, or it can be called up from items already in the system.  The Radical Seasonality feature deals with products that have about 90% of their demand take place in three to four months.  Different logic is required for these items than for items, which exhibit standard seasonality.

 

This feature is activated by having a figure in the item record under the same name.  If a figure is in this field, such as four, then the system will insure that regardless of the demand level, it will have four as the net available.  This option is for companies who feel that they have to have a given number of units on the shelf to be “in the business”, regardless of demand levels.  It is also handy if a given number of units are required to make sense.  E.g. Unless you have four automotive tires on the shelf, stocking the size does not make sense.

 

This feature creates a mechanism whereby you can designate one or more items that will be replaced by a new item.  The system will then track both the new and old items, but will not reorder the old items when they come up for replenishment.  Instead, the system will at that point reclassify the items as non-stocked, and move the history of the old item over to the new one.  Eventually, all the old items will have been consumed and the surviving new item will contain the history of all the old items.

 

The icon to the far left of the master screen brings up the systems parameters. There are certain items that must be set to activate some of the features as mentioned above.  Some of the other parameters are fundamental to the system, and although they are user controlled, they should be left at the default levels except under extreme circumstances.

 

This feature deals with the situation that there may be some overstock of an item at one location that you are considering to order at another location.  MARS-IW will alert you to this condition and allow you to automatically create a transfer order of the overstock quantity while deleting the quantity from the vendor order.  It also gives you the ability to set up which locations are valid transfer points, and even which vendor products within locations are valid for transfer.     

 

Vendor parameters, which include key items such as lead time and order frequency, can be entered and maintained in the PC, or they can be downloaded from the host computer.  The second file tab in the vendor parameter screen allows you to set the minimum size order in terms of weight, units, volume or cost.  This information will then come up automatically in the goal-seeking screen when it is activated.

 

This feature allows you to build an order with the “primary vendor” and then explore a variety of options of reassigning items to alternate vendors.  During the process you can determine the total weight, item count, or dollars of the alternative vendor and manipulate the final order accordingly.

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