Actual Demand: Demand that is actually recorded and not calculated or forecasted.
Average: The mean amount of a product that is predicted to be in demand for a time period.
Back Out: Product that not taken into account when counting how much product is currently on hand. Ex: product in a hold out.
Batch (Product Batch): A grouping of products brought together with a shared characteristic.
Bracket Level: A threshold minimum or maximum the system will try and meet set by one defining characteristic. For example, if there is a minimum weight of 42,000lbs, the system will build and extend the order to meet this requirement.
Buy Multiple: The amount of a product a manufacturer sells in. Example: eggs are sold in a dozen, so the buy multiple is 12.
Buyer (Buyer Group): The user’s buyer filter to help group suppliers for a user.
Combined Supplier: A supplier that is a ‘virtual supplier’ within the K3S application that allows the system to forecast and order product from multiple individual suppliers as one supplier to meet discounts and required minimums.
Convenience Threshold: The percentage amount to round up to a ‘full packed amount’ for convenience for the warehouse. Example: If the system says we need to order 9 eggs, and the Convenience Threshold is 70%, our 9 eggs are 75% of a dozen. Therefor the system will round up the amount needed to order to 12.
Counter: This is flexible field used to help count to a package requirement. It is a ‘count’ of how many products are needed to fill whatever that package is. Example: A supplier has a pallet requirement for all its orders of 5 pallets. The counter will be setup individually for each product on how many products go into one counter (which represents one pallet).
Cycle Stock: The amount of stock needed on an order to meet your service levels until it is time to order again.
Daily Replenishment: Our system of calcuations and algorithms that allows us to accurately forecast down to the day of the week how much product we need for how often we order.
Demand: The amount of product ordered or requested from the disitrubtion center for a period. This is a number that would be the same or larger than sales as sales does not account for product ordered but not able to be fulfilled.
Deviation Percentage: The amount of variation or change percentage from the forecasted demand. The lower the deviation, the more predictable the product is. The higher the deviation, the more unpredictable, and also the more safety stock that will need to be carried to meet the set service level.
Demand High: This is a spike in demand that performed outside the bounds of what was expected. By default this is 5 MADs above the average.
Demand Low: This is a dramatic dip in demand that performed outside the bounds of what was expected. By default this is 3 MADs above the average.
Diverter (Alternate Source): A supplier that has purchased product from the manufacturer at a discount, and then offers this same product to a distributor at a price that is less than the manufacturer can offer.
Fixed Cycle Supplier: A supplier that is required to order on a certain day of the week or every few weeks. The cycle cannot be adjusted as it is set by the supplier.
Forecast Interval: This is the periodocity of how often an average is created from a certain amount of time. Common examples are monthly, 13 four weekly, and 52 weekly / daily.
Forecast Method: The approach and algorithm used to take in historical demand and develop an average.
Forecasted Demand: Demand that is forecasted for a particular year and period based off previous periods.
Forward Buy: Making a decision to purchase more product than what is needed for some type of financial gain.
Fresh Supplier: Similar to Daily Replenish, this applies all the same techniques but ignores how much is currently onhand as fresh products spoil very fast.
Holdout: An amount of product that is ‘kept aside’ and not used for calculations to meet demand. This allows a user to keep a store of inventory for an upcoming purpose.
Holdout Request:
Holdout Queue:
Lead Time: The amount of time from when the order is placed to when it is received. Notice that received does not mean the shipment has just come in, but has come in and is available for the warehouse to pick.
Location: In K3S where we order products to. There can be multiple locations within one physical warehouse.
Mean Absolute Deviation (MADs): The average distance between a number and the average. This can be found by taking the deviation and multiplying the average to produce 1 MAD.
Multi-Freight Split: A split that will distribute product from one order across multiple orders to meet the requirements of a buyer.
Order Cycle: The pattern of how often the system will try to order.
Order Point: The amount of on hand product that we reach as it is depleted where we need to order more product so that we will not negatively affect service level.
Overstock: An excess amount of inventory beyond what is required for cycle stock and safety stock.
PE Check: This is a threshold that is checked at the end of each period per product to see if a product has behaved in a way that was not anticipated. The system creates a ‘Check’ within a batch for the user to go review the particular PE Check threshold that was surpassed.
Period: This is a set period of time that will be used to help calculate demand averages for products. Periods can be 13 four weekly, monthly, and daily (52 weeks). While it is possible to have all three at one company, we would expect only type of main periodocity at a company between 13 four weekly or monthly. If that company has very fast moving products or fresh they may also have daily.
Product: An item that is purchased from a supplier and provided to customers.
Product Groups: An optional way to label or tag a product. There are 5 product groups, and we are able to perform logic or operations based on tags in specific groups if needed. Similar to Supplier Groups.
Purchase Requisite:
Purchase Order (PO): An order placed to a vendor with a promise to pay for product once shipped and received.
Safety Stock: An amount of product that is kept on hand above just the forecasted average to ensure that the set service level is achieved.
Seasonal Profile: A collection of seasonality factors for each period that are applied to a product to allow a product’s average to go up and down to meet a pattern of demand that changes predictably each year.
Seasonality Factor: The multiplier applied to the average to produce the seasonal average for a period.
Service Level: The percentage of product that was able to ship to meet the demand.
Suggested Order Quantity (SOQ): The amount the system has calculated to order for a product to fulfil the product needs. This is just a suggestion and the user can adjust if they believe it is needed.
Suggested Order: A calculated and forecasted suggestion from the system for an order to a supplier to meet the needs of the distributors customers while not over carrying product.
Supplier: A vendor or manufacturer that you are able to purchase product from that will ship to you.
Supplier Groups: An optional way to label or tag a supplier. There are 5 supplier groups, and we are able to perform logic or operations based on tags in specific groups if needed. Similar to Product Groups
Tracking Signal: A number developed to track the movement of a product that statistically and steadily is trending to a different average than it currently is.
Tracking Signal Direction: This is the direction of the tracking signal, trending up or down.
Variable Order Cycle: Unlike the typical Order Cycle which is one set pattern, Variable Order Cycle will account for different cycles within the week when products are demanded at a higher rate.
