Summary
The inventory balancing screen, sometimes called "Suggested Transfers" allows you to view recommendations that StockIQ has for making broad inventory balancing moves. This article walks through the best ways to practice inventory balancing in StockIQ
Applies To
This works in concert with the more opportunistic Substitutes feature, which looks for inventory available at ordering item. This screen is more about doing intentional inventory balancing maneuvers, typically done a few times per year, not as a routine week-in and week-out operation.
Process
The Inventory Balancing screen is made up of a 7-step wizard.
1. Select Warehouse
The first thing to do is select the warehouse from which you want to send inventory out. A grid is shown with recommendations. After setting your display options (below), select your source warehouse and click next to move to the next step.
- Source Site Code - Site/Warehouse code from which to send.
- Source Site Name - Name of the site
- # Matches - How many items were matched based on your filters
- # To Transfer - How many items to send from that warehouse
- # Transfer Destination Lines - How many transfer lines that results in. This will sometimes be more than the # to transfer, if StockIQ determines that a particular item needs to be sent to multiple destinations for inventory balancing.
- # Excess - How many of those items are in excess at the sending site.
- # Overstocked - How many of those items are overstocked (> max stock) at the sending site
- Total Cubes - Total cubes that are being suggested to move, to help with estimating truckloads required
- Total Weight - Total weight that is being suggested to move, to help with estimating truck loads.
2. Select Transfers
The second step of the wizard shows the specific transfer lines recommended. Below is some explanation of a few of the columns:
- Max Units to Trx - This is the maximum units that StockIQ would like to transfer, if there was infinite capacity to accept it. This is based on your display options configuration, e.g. are we suggesting excess moves, etc.
- Orig Sugg. Trx Qty - StockIQ's original suggestion for total amount to move.
- Transfer Quantity - Current transfer quantities, after user edits.
- Transfer Value - Amount being transferred out, in terms of the standard cost at the sending warehouse
At the bottom of the screen, the "Suggested Transfer Destinations" grid shows the destination(s) recommended for each transfer out. Each transfer total in the top grid may have several destinations being recommended. It is in this grid where you can edit each specific transfer quantity to each warehouse.
- Order? - Shows if this line is a suggested transfer destination or not. You may see lines that are for sites not recommended in this grid.
- Max Qty Can Accept - the max quantity this warehouse can accept based on your display options inputs.
- Orig Sugg. Trx Qty - original amount StockIQ suggested to send to this site
- Transfer Quantity - editable field where you can modify the transfer quantity to send to this warehouse. Updating this updates the total transfer quantity in the upper grid for your selected line.
- Transfer Value - Transfer value into the warehouse, in terms of the receiving warehouse's standard cost. Note this can vary from standard cost of the item in the sending warehouse if there are differences between the two.
Steps 3-7 -- Build your Transfer
The remaining steps of the Inventory Balancing wizard are the same as in the Place Orders screen, mimicking what you would see in Place Orders Step 2. You have a grid of transfer lines, as well as several tabs of data to help refine your order, and the order targeting wizard if you wish to use it. Move through the remaining steps to create your transfer, and it will be sent/synced with your ERP.
The display options have significant effect on the suggestions made for your transfers, and give you flexibility around what StockIQ does/does not recommend.
- Transfer Mode - This determines if we are balancing across your whole network, or if the only option is a 'sweep back' to the hub from the outer spokes to re-consolidate inventory
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Transfer Down-To Level - Determines how much we are trying to remove from an overstocked warehouse:
- Excess Threshold - will transfer enough that the part is at (but not over) what would be considered excess. This is a relatively mild setting.
- Max Inventory - will transfer enough inventory so the item is down to its max stock setting (e.g. no longer overstocked), which is a more aggressive move than just removing excess as above.
- Days of Inventory - you can remove down to a target days of inventory for items in the sending warehouse.
- Days of Cycle Stock - Transfer down to a target days of cycle stock, e.g. all items have 90 days above their safety stock requirements. This can help re-sync re-ordering behavior.
- Accept Up-To Level - This is the same setting, but in reverse for the receiving warehouse - how willing should the receiving warehouses be? The same options as above are present there.
- Only Suggest Transfers with Open Demands - This option limits transfers to only happen based on current open demand, and will reduce transfer suggestions a good amount.
- Show All Suggested Transfers - This option will cause StockIQ to show all inventory quantities that it would like to move out of a given warehouse, even if there is no destination that can accept it. For example, if you have excess at Warehouse A, but no room at Warehouse B or C based on your selections, normally you will not see that recommendation. Enabling this checkbox at least allows you to see what you would move if you could.
- Display All Possible Destinations - On the second step of the Inventory Balancing screen, enabling this option means we will show all possible destinations for a given transfer, even if those destinations cannot accept inventory. This allows you to see why the other locations were not used, and/or make manual adjustments.
- Min Units/Value per Line - Allows you to set efficiency thresholds for the lowest suggestions to make, so that you're not moving small amounts of SKUs and wasting money in transit.
- Source Warehouse Inventory Position Options - Allows you to include/exclude items that are non-stock, excess, and overstocked at the sending warehouse.
- Source Warehouse Usage Pattern Options - Allows you to include/exclude items that are dead, slow, sporadic, and recurring at the sending warehouse. For example, a recurring item you may simply want to leave in place as it will eventually sell through, but dead or slow items are good candidates to transfer elsewhere.