CHAPTER 10 GUIDE
Orders, Stock and the Boring Middle
In short
Every business has a boring middle. It's not the exciting part, like a new product launch.
The operations bot
This bot mostly reads and reports. That's what you want.
The morning report
That's it. Thirty seconds to read.
Stock levels
For each product, choose a level at which you want a warning. It depends on how fast it sells and how long it takes to make or restock.
Packing and shipping
Packing is hands-on, so it's yours. But the work around it can be smoothed out.
Late shipments
Sometimes things don't arrive. The carrier loses a package.
Supplier deliveries
The same applies to stock coming in. The bot tracks supplier shipments and warns you of delays, so you can adjust.
The weekly summary
On top of the morning report, a weekly summary helps you see patterns.
Checking the bot's checks
A bot on watch is only useful if it actually notices things. Once in a while, test it.
Keeping it light
It's tempting to have the operations bot report everything, all the time. Don't.
Walkthrough: setting stock levels
- The owner asked the operations bot for each product's average daily sales over the last three months, from a store export.
- For each product, they told the bot how long it takes to restock. Printed items take a day or two. Supplied items take three weeks or more.
- The bot suggested a reorder level for each: daily sales times restock time, plus a few days' buffer.
- The owner adjusted a few by feel, since they knew a holiday was coming, and set them.
What went wrong: the silent stock-out
In the first month, the plant pot feet sold out over a weekend and the morning report didn't mention it. The owner found out from a customer.
A worked example: the busy week
Before the holidays, Shelf Life had three times its usual orders in one week. The morning report grew, but stayed in order: most urgent first.
A worked example: the carrier pattern
After a few months, the Shelf Life weekly summaries showed a pattern. Most late deliveries came through one carrier service, especially to rural addresses.
Questions people ask
Should the bot reorder stock on its own? No.