Core concepts
Demand and net demand
Section titled “Demand and net demand”Demand is the quantity customers want of a product. VidiStock uses net demand: sales minus returns.
Forecast period and horizon
Section titled “Forecast period and horizon”Sales are stored daily; forecasts are made in monthly or weekly periods. The horizon is how many periods ahead are forecast. Both are chosen on the Settings page.
Forecast run
Section titled “Forecast run”Forecasts, plans and alerts are all calculated together in a forecast run. A run is started manually from the dashboard and also runs automatically every Monday. The suggestions on screen belong to the latest run: if you change a product card or stock, run the forecast again to get new suggestions.
Warehouse scope
Section titled “Warehouse scope”Every warehouse has its own stock, forecast and plan. On most screens you can pick one warehouse or look at all of them. The consolidated view treats all warehouses as a single pool.
Safety stock, reorder point, target stock
Section titled “Safety stock, reorder point, target stock”- Safety stock: the buffer held against uncertainty.
- Reorder point: when stock falls to this level, an order is placed. It is the expected demand during the lead time plus safety stock.
- Target stock: the level you want to reach after ordering.
See Order suggestions for details.
Service level
Section titled “Service level”Your target for not running out. 95% means “I want to meet demand from stock in ninety-five out of a hundred order cycles”. The higher it is, the more safety stock is held. It can be set per product, per warehouse and for the company; the product value wins, then the warehouse, then the company default.