A "Black Swan" is an incident that cannot be predicted but has an enormous impact. At the moment, for example, you can see that the Coronavirus is having an impact on supply chains worldwide. Companies that produce and deliver physical goods are now in the process of determining the impact of the pandemic on their supply chain. In addition, it remains uncertain how much the virus will affect your demand (people are more at home, so they will probably order more online). Either way, it will have an impact on your stock. Optiply can aid in minimizing the impact on your business. We have listed a number of possible measures below:
Measures
It is important to keep more stock in case of uncertainty in deliveries. You can set this in Optiply by increasing the 'Desired delivery reliability' in the general settings. In addition, you can 'Increase the expected delivery time' of the suppliers. As a result, Optiply will keep larger stocks. This ensures that the customer's demand can still be fulfilled when deliveries do not arrive. This is especially valuable for your A-category products. After all, more stock in this category does not result in dead stock, but only in somewhat longer stock time.
Do you already have delivery difficulties? Then check if you can control the "demand". Reduce the marketing of products and increase the selling prices, this will make products less likely to sell out and you will make better margins. Also, check if there are similar products available that you can promote as replacements.
Is a lot of purchasing too expensive? Then you can reduce the A category. By reducing this category and increasing the delivery reliability, the products that make the most margin will be in stock the longest.
Heavy discounting of the C category. By heavily discounting the C category, more money will be made available. This money can then be used to make purchases in the A category, for example.
In the longer term, make sure you become less dependent on suppliers in another region. If a supplier is unable to deliver, it is good to look at other suppliers. It may be possible that another supplier does have these products. Our 'Multiple suppliers' functionality could be of help.
Is something unclear or do you want us to think about it with you? Optiply is available during office hours so don't hesitate!
Note: The supplier settings are processed at night. A new order advice will be ready the next morning.