The Review tab is design to help you keep stock controls in line with your strategy. As your rate of demand changes, the stock controls will need to be recalculated to align with the ‘days-of-stock’ of your strategy. The Review process functions by allowing you to easily see which transactions of products have a rate of demand change or to review your product controls by using a set review timer.

Background

As you create a stock strategy in AIM via the Modelling or Product Forecast tools, you will set the Reorder Points and Maximum stock levels in Unleashed. As the rate of demand changes, these stock controls will need to be updated to maintain the same strategy. You can also use the Review tab as a way of alerting yourself when a product or group of products are due to have their strategy changed to accommodate a different season.

Review Interface

1. Transaction filters

2. Show Inactive transactions that have all products superseded by subsequent transactions (hidden by default)

3. Filter buttons to show All transactions, Needs review (demand has changed -/+10%), Expired transactions (Review date is in the past)

4. Transaction grid with:

   • Transaction name and creation date

   • Status (Active, Inactive, Mixed)

   • Product Count

   • SOH value of active products with the transaction

   • Max decrease in demand (see 5)

   • Max increase in demand (see 5)

   • Controls status (see 6)

   • Review Time showing the number of days until Review is due

   • Review button ( see 7)
     
     

5. Columns indicating the current Max Increase or Decrease in Rate of Demand of the products contained within the transaction since the transaction was created.

6. Controls Status: If a the Review Date has passed, or the transaction has a max increase or decrease in product demand exceeding 10% then the transaction Controls Status will indicate ‘Needs Review’

7. The Review button will open the Review Summary of Modelling transactions to allow for easy recalculation. If the transaction is for a Product Forecast, the Review button will open the forecast for you to review the details and submit changes.

8. Control for the number of rows displayed per page

9. Pagination controls

Transaction Details Interface

Transaction Products Interface

Review Summary Interface

Review panel for Modelled transactions showing the recalculated stock control values

Clicking on the Review button for a modelled transaction will display the Review panel where you can submit a quick recalculation or opt to Edit the transaction in the Modelling tab

Reviewing product controls is triggered in two primary ways:

• The rate of demand of a product has changed, necessitating a recalculation of the min/max stock levels to maintain the current strategy

• The current transaction has passed its expiry date set at the time of creation
  
  

How to Review a previous transaction:

1. Access the Review tab by clicking ‘Review’ at the top of the AIM page

2. Find your transaction you wish to review. You can add filters to refine the list of transactions that appear, or to see which transactions require review, you can select the filter button ‘Needs review.’ This will show transactions that have a product that has a rate of demand change exceeding +/-10% from the rate of demand of when the transaction was created. Alternatively, to see which transactions have passed their expiry date and are due to be reviewed, click the ‘Expired transactions’ filter button.
   NOTE: by default transactions that have been superseded by subsequent transactions will be hidden. To review these, select ‘Show inactive’

3. Click on a transaction to expand its Summary details.

4. Click on the Product tab of a transaction to review the product specific details contained within, including the rate of demand change, indicating how out of date the stock controls are.

5. Click the Review button to:

   • load a modelled transaction in the Review details summary
     Review the change in Min and Max stock values
     The Transaction Name and Review Time will automatically be inherited and can be edited
     (Optionally, you can select Edit to load the transaction into Modelling to change the strategy as required)
     or

   • load a forecast product into Product Forecast, where you will see your product controls are recalculated and you can review the forecast values for future months.

6. Click Submit to create a new transaction that will update the stock controls according to your current rate of demand.
   
   

AIM Review Example:

You product sells at a rate of 1 per day. Your supplier takes a week to deliver your purchases. You want to place orders when you have a couple of weeks of stock so that you have a 1 week buffer. You want to place orders every month.

Using AIM you set up a Just-In-Time strategy with 7 days lead time, 7 days min buffer and 30 days of max buffer. When creating the transaction to submit the stock controls to the product record you set the expiry to 3 months to change the stock strategy for a different season.

A month later, the product experiences a surge in demand. You are now selling at a rate of 3 per day. Your reorder point of 14 units that equated to 14 days of stock when the transaction was set is now less than 5 days of stock and will likely result in a stock out before the suppliers deliveries arrive. The max stock setting of 30 units is also now only covering 10 days of stock which will result in 3 reorders being triggered per month incurring higher freight costs.

The AIM Review tab highlights that the transaction ‘Needs review’ and clicking on the ‘Review’ button will prompt for the strategy to be recalculated and a new submission created with a Reorder Point increasing to 42 units (14 days x 3 per day), a max stock level of 132 units (Reorder Point + (30 x 3 per day)).

The product now has stock controls that match the strategy of 7 days lead time, 7 days min buffer and a max buffer of 30 days.

You’re all set to meet the current demands of your customers, avoiding stock outs and lost profit.

NOTE: AIM Review will also alert you if a product drops in demand, allowing you to set new stock controls to avoid stock that customers no longer desire, avoiding overstock issues.

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