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Accurately ordering replacement stock for an independent pharmacy is difficult and time-consuming task. If you don’t order enough of a popular product, you will run out of stock and alienate your best customers. On the other hand, if you order too much of a slow-moving item, you waste your money and shelf space on product you will never sell. Many independent pharmacies hire a full-time skilled employee whose primary responsibility is to manually calculate order quantities each business day. A crisis can develop for the store if this employee decides to seek employment elsewhere!
Incorporated into TSS is an advanced automatic ordering system that
handles this important yet cumbersome task for your store effortlessly
and accurately. Utilizing a variety of different automatic
ordering algorithms, the TSS automatic ordering system prepares
consistently accurate orders on specified days of the week.
Store
personnel have the opportunity to manually review and adjust the order
quantities prior to the ordering cutoff time. Ordering
information can be printed and, armed with an RF gun, employees can
correct perpetual inventory data and adjust order quantities, all in
real time while walking the aisles of the store. These orders
are
electronically transmitted to the appropriate vendor or vendors using
the integrated WAN or internet-based data communication system.Intelligent ordering requires three pieces of data for each product to be ordered: the average weekly movement for the product, the number of pieces of the product currently in stock, and the number of pieces of the product currently on order but not yet delivered. Armed with this collection of data, the TSS automatic ordering system calculates an order quantity intended to keep the store in stock with the product for two to eight weeks, depending upon system configuration.
Unfortunately, a perfect world does not exist inside a retail store. When new products are stocked, or when the TSS is newly installed, products will not have accurate or meaningful item movement data. A variety of real-world store situations can result in inaccuracies in the perpetual inventory quantities for a number or products. When any of these situations arise, the TSS automatic ordering system drops into one of several recovery modes of operation, and it generates a more conservative order for the affected products. Over time, these smaller orders will lead to meaningful item movement data for the new products, resulting in accurate item movement history after a few ordering cycles.
When orders are shipped to the store by the vendor, an Advance Ship Notice, or ASN, is electronically transmitted into the TSS store system. This ASN document plays a critical role in driving the receiving process. Using a wireless RF gun, the store’s receiver is able to quickly receive the entire order, without counting the individual products contained in the order. As a result, the store’s perpetual inventory levels are accurately maintained with a minimum of employee labor. And, due to the quality of the perpetual inventory management system data, future automatic orders are calculated accurately.
The TSS automatic ordering system enables the storeowner the easily maintain the correct in stock levels, keeping the customers happy without diluting profits on expensive labor or excessive overstocks.