Summary
Safety Stock Overrides allow you to individually override the safety stock and/or safety stock rules that StockIQ will use when selecting your Active Safety Stock, which is the number used when planning replenishment for your items.
This screen is accessed by going to Admin --> System Configuration --> Safety Stock Overrides
NOTE: You can also create Statistical Safety Stock Overrides, which affect how StockIQ calculates the StockIQ Statistical Safety Stock, which you can use or override with your Safety Stock Overrides.
Column Description
Once you have gotten to the screen, click the "+" icon in the grid to add a new override, and fill in the values to complete your override. When done, click the "Save" link. StockIQ will replan your item immediately.
Method - This defines how StockIQ should select between the safety stock values available to it.
- Statistical - Always use the value calculated by StockIQ according to the Statistical Safety Stock settings for that item.
- Host Provided - Always use what came from the host ERP system. 0 is used if no value is present.
- Host Value When Provided - Use when came from the ERP system if present, otherwise use StockIQ's statistical value.
- Highest - Choose the higher of the two ERP vs StockIQ values
- Lowest - Chose the lower of the two ERP vs StockIQ values
- Number of Days - Calculate safety stock based on a number of days of usage, based on Forecasted Usage @ Lead Time. This option is not recommended for a default, and also generally not for individual item overrides either - see the recommendations in the Safety Stock Overrides topic.
- Fixed Value - Use a safety stock of a particular fixed value. This option is not recommended for a default, and is not usually recommended for individual overrides either - see the recommendations in the Safety Stock Overrides topic.
Override Applies - Allows you to limit when the override is applied. If the item has been changed to a non-stock order policy, you can allow the override not to be applied so that you don't accidentally override to carrying safety stock on a Buy To Order or Do Not Order item.
Fixed Value - What value to use if you've selected the Fixed Value SS method.
Number of Days - What number of days to target if you've selected the Number Of Days method.
Minimum - The minimum safety stock to use, in units or days (see below)
Minimum Measure - The measure of the minimum that you have provided. If days, usage is calculated based on forecasted daily usage at lead time.
Maximum - The maximum safety stock to use, in units or days (see below)
Maximum Measure - The measure of the maximum that you have provided. If days, usage is calculated based on forecasted daily usage at lead time.
Stock to Cumulative Lead Time - When checked, safety stock is based on the cumulative, end-to-end lead time of any products which have a bill-of-materials and/or are in hub/spoke relationships. This is recommended if you do not stock components, and therefore a stockout of your finished good means you must start at the beginning of your supply chain. If safety stock is held at intermediate levels of your BoM, then this is usually not necessary, and would only serve to inflate safety stock on your finished good unnecessarily.
Usage Source - This tells StockIQ what types of usage should be considered when calculating safety stocks - independent, dependent, or both. Generally you will want to allow both sources to count for making an appropriate stock level.
For example, a hub warehouse might have significant levels of dependent demand for which you must make sure the hub stocks appropriately, whereas the spokes will have almost nothing but independent demand, for which they must also stock appropriately.
By default, StockIQ looks at the Global Safety Stock Settings for Finished Goods, Assemblies, and Raw Materials to determine the usage source for a given item.
If you override this default by specifying a non-null usage source in your override, then that will be used instead of the system defaults.
Troubleshooting/Recommendations
There are two common recommendations when it comes to setting safety stock overrides, based on things we commonly see:
Try to minimize the number of overrides you have
As with anything else, once you enter overrides, they become something else that must be maintained and checked in on with some frequency. So, before creating one, make sure it is really necessary, and even set an expiration date when possible, so that the item will return to automated planning as soon as possible. As always, we encourage configuration over manual effort in StockIQ.
Resist the temptation to set a safety stock based on "Number of Days"
This approach is an old-fashioned approach to setting safety stock, as it is a blanket one-size-fits-all approach, and does not consider factors such as an item's variability. If one item sells 100 units every month, do you really need 2 weeks of safety stock? No - it is very predictable. If another item has the same average demand, but sells in a highly variable pattern, then the same 2 weeks (50 units) would be woefully inadequate.
So, we do not recommend this approach. Use the following method instead:
Set an override with a "safety net" instead of a fixed quantity
If you absolutely must set a safety stock override, then rather than creating a fixed quantity or # of days override, we recommend that you set a flexible override. You can do this by creating an override with:
- Method = Statistical
- Min = the min # of days (or units) that you feel comfortable with (and are creating the override for). Set the "Min" and "Min Measure" fields, such as "14" and "Days" to create a min 14 days SS
- (Optional) Max = the max # of days (or units) that you feel comfortable with - in the event you want to cap safety stock rather than set a "floor" to it.
If you set an override in this way, then StockIQ will still calculate a statistical safety stock for this item as it was doing before your override. However, if the calculated value falls below your min (or above your max), then your active Safety Stock will be bumped up (or down) to that value. This allows your safety stock to float upwards and downwards as necessary according to the item's behavior, but always keeps in place a safety net, if you really feel you need it.