The APS (Advance Purchasing System) is an add-on to Target Core that is available free of charge to small vendors, and at a price to larger vendors.
Features
- The Advanced Purchasing System uses history to show what will be needed in the future. No more guessing on orders. Know EXACTLY how much to purchase, and avoid excess inventory or running out of stock.
- Order by truckload, tier/height, cube, days supply, pallets, pounds, cases, gallons and more.
- Buyers spend time making deals instead of creating Purchase Orders.
- Program sends emergency notifications, when large orders are placed.
- Rank each item as A, B, C or D.
- Shows “out of stock” history for each item.
- Patterns seasons through a year.
How it works
If a customer attempts to purchase an unavailable product, this is recorded as a product that will be needed in the future. Instead of recording what was substituted for the unavailable product, see what customers actually want.
The program then compares the demand and history of customers against five different forecasting algorithms, selects the best fit, and customizes future predictions for each vendor.
Based on these predictions, the program creates purchase orders. The program calculates exact quantites of what will run out by a given date, and creates purchase orders which will refill those items for an exact period of time.
Calculation includes consideration of lead-time and safety stock.