The Stock Forecasting Module helps you stay ahead of stock shortages by automatically predicting what you'll need and when to reorder it.
It looks at your recent order history and can also consider historic seasonal data, to work out how quickly each product is selling. Then the module uses that information to estimate future demand. If a product is on track to run low, the system flags it and suggests how much to reorder. This can then be translated into a Purchase Order.
This means you can act before you run out, rather than after.
Note: This feature is currently being beta tested. Check future release notes to see once added to general release.
Key Benefits:
Demand Predictions based on your real sales data.
Automatic reorder alerts when stock levels are projected to drop below outlined thresholds.
Configurable Settings so you can tailor lead times, service levels and forecasting periods to suit your business.
Runs in the background, the forecasts update automatically as new orders come in, with no manual input required.
Configuration Defaults
3PLs
3PLs
As a 3PL, you can configure the settings for each Client, to do this please do the following:
Go to Mintsoft.
Click Clients.
Find the correct Client.
Click Edit.
Go to the Forecasting Config tab.
Configure the options, please see below for details on the options.
Click Save.
Multichannels
Multichannels
As a multichannel, you can configure settings for your own product defaults:
Go to Mintsoft.
Click Settings
Click Client Settings.
Go to the Forecasting Config tab.
Configure the options, please see below for details on the options.
Click Save
Client Default Forecast Configuration
Forecast Method
Forecast Method
This is the algorithm used to predict future demand, you can choose one of the below available forecast methods.
Simple Moving Average
Looks at your recent sales history and calculates a straight average of daily demand. Every day in the window counts equally for example, last Tuesday is just as important as a sale from two months ago.
This works well for products that sell at a fairly steady, predictable rate.
Exponential Smoothing
Also uses your sales history, but pays more attention to what happened recently. Yesterday's sales matter more than last month's. It does this gradually so older data still has some influence, it just fades over time.
Choose this for products where demand has been shifting (trending up or down) and you want the forecast to react to those changes quickly.
Weighted Moving Average
A blend of the two above. It looks at recent history like the simple average, but gives more weight to newer days in a steady, proportional way (the most recent day counts the most, the oldest day counts the least).
A good middle-ground option and more responsive to recent changes than a simple average, but not as reactive as exponential smoothing.
History Period (Days)
History Period (Days)
How many days of historical order data the system analyses when computing forecasts. A longer period provided more data but may dilute recent trends.
Default: 90
Range: 7-365
Forecast Horizon (Days)
Forecast Horizon (Days)
How many days into the future the system will generate forecast predictions. For example a value of 30 means forecasts are produced for each of the next 30 days.
Default: 30
Range: 1 - 90
Service Level Target (%)
Service Level Target (%)
The target fill rate percentage, for example 95% means the goal is to fulfil 95% of the orders directly from stock. A higher value results in larger safety stock reccomendations.
Default: 95%
Range: 50 - 99.99%
Default Lead Time (Days)
Default Lead Time (Days)
The default supplier lead time applied to all products. This is used when calculating reorder points and safety stock.
Default: 7 days
Range: 1 - 365 days
Seasonality
Seasonality
When enabled, the system calculates a seasonal scaling factor for each forecast date by comparing demand from the same calendar period one year ago to the overall average demand from that year.
Warehouse Dependant
Warehouse Dependant
When enabled, separate forecasts are generated per warehouse. When disabled, a single combined forecast is generated across all warehouses. This affects both demand predictions and reorder suggestions.
Active
Active
This enables/ disables this feature for the client entirely.
Product Configuration
You can also configure the settings on a per-product basis, which will override anything set on the client default configuration. To achieve this, please do the following:
Go to Mintsoft.
Find the product you would like to configure.
Click Actions, then Edit against the product.
Go to the Forecast Options tab.
Configure the Product Forecast Settings.
Click Save Product Settings.
Within the Product Forecast Settings, you will have configuration options split in two sections.
Forecast Overrides.
These are the same options as set on the client level, except Active and Default lead time. These settings will override the client level settings.
Reorder Settings.
This includes the lead time, and some other product specific reorder settings.
Reorder Settings
Lead Time (Days)
Lead Time (Days)
This is how many days it takes for this product's supplier to deliver stock after an order is placed. The system uses this to calculate the reorder point and safety stock level. If this product comes from a slower supplier than the client default, set it here.
Min Order Qty
Min Order Qty
The smallest quantity you are allowed to order for this product. If the system calculates a suggested reorder quantity below this number, it would be rounded up to meet this minimum.
Max Order Qty
Max Order Qty
The largest quantity you are allowed to order for this product in a single reorder. This caps the suggested order quantity so it doesn't exceed this value.
Reorder Multiple
Reorder Multiple
Forces the suggested order quantity to be rounded up to a multiple of this value. For example, if the reorder multiple is set to 12 and a suggested reorder quantity was 25, we would round this to 36. This is useful when products come in a fixed pack size, for example 12.
Exclude from Forecast
Exclude from Forecast
When enabled, this product is completely skipped by the forecasting system. No forecast predictions or reorder suggestions will be generated for it.
Note: For an initial Stock Forecast it can take a couple of hours to load the data.