Acufill is the web-based Allocation & Range Planning format that was initially created in Excel to cater for the Mass Retailer RPO allocation model; RPO being ‘Reverse Purchase Order”. It is a stand-alone feature that has export (csv format) text files for 3rd Party ISP providers to use EDI functionality to auto-load into legacy systems for Pickslip/Invoicing production.
The RPO model, transferred the Retailers weekly in-house admin duties for the production of a Purchase Order onto their Trusted Suppliers.
- Weekly POS data files in .csv format were transferred via EDI mailbox for Suppliers to pickup & process.
- Month End or EOP (End Of Period) KPI for Sales Targets and Closing SOH were published and these KPI authorized the Supplier to monitor & increase/Decrease OTB spend weekly, dependent on Sales/SOH trend during each Period.
- Sales trending up – authorized the pull/push of more stock
- Sales trending down – signalled constraint to meet the Closing Period Stock Target (EOP SOH). Overstocks became the Suppliers problem to resolve/remove by either pickup or subsidized markdown.
- Ultimately, the responsibility to remove SOH asap falls upon the Supplier to resolve, as they were responsible for putting it into the business.
- Retailer Merchandise Planner/Merchandiser workload is reduced therefore transitioned to a monitoring position with less admin (negating the requirement for an Allocator), with simply monitoring Weekly Sales v PTD (Period To Date) OTB spend, leaving more time for overall Range Analysis, Aged stock management (planning clearance activity) and more indepth Gender Sub-Category Price Point (GPP) analysis.
AcuFill Advantage:
With the extra Range Performance visibility given by AcuFill in its color coded Benchmark driven reporting format; Suppliers plan incoming stock flow for agree authorization of Forward Supply Purchase orders.
Loading POS (Point Of Sale) data (Sales, SIT, SOH) by Store/SKU and producing weekly Allocations becomes very intuitive and easy to alter stock weights. Although AcuFill caters for a myriad of options to alter stock profiles down to Store/SKU level, once general settings are made, the in-built algorithms mean relatively static/stable settings are maintained.
Note: Detail settings at Store level are Store (Grade, Area) or Gender, Price Point (PP), Grade (both Store or SKU) with Exception grids for Store or SKU or Store/SKU or Price Point (PP).
- this means any imaginable combination can be altered or catered for e.g. temporary promo, regional stock weight to cater for supply chain issues etc..
EDI:
POS data files, dropped by the Retailer into EDI mailboxes, are retrieved by Suppliers who then process the Weekly Store Sales, Store Stock On Hand (SOH) and Store Stock In Transit (SIT) by SKU/Store, to produce an Allocation per category. This Allocation is then deposited into the EDI Mailbox for auto-retrieval by the Retailer, usually cleared on a 2 hourly basis.
The Retailer system verifies SKU numbers (as being Active) and cost price, with any exceptions producing an error message, which is again transmitted via the EDI mailbox back to the Supplier to rectify.
POS Import is handled by ‘mapping’ POS files from their source file format into AcuFill, easily done by the USER.