ADP BRP/BSL Dilemma

[JJS]

I think I'm having a problem with what IRE is showing for BRP/BSL and what my parts inquiry screens are saying. I'll use an example; I do have others. I have a battery that in 2 different parts inquiry screens are telling me that the BRP (best reorder point) is 2 and the BSL (best stocking level) is 3. I checked the sales history for the last 6 months and I've sold an average of 2.167 per month so that seems right. I'm using a 28 BRP and a 30 BSL as my main guides with an extra 2 days.

Now when I go to calculate a stock order on IRE it shows the BRP/BSL to be 0/1. So as you can see, I literally have to run out before it suggests that I should order any when it should have suggested I reorder more when I got down to 2. I run stock orders everyday and there were numerous days between the last 3 sale dates on that battery and it never once showed up to be reordered until today.

I spent 1-1/2 hours with ADP on a web-chat and they are telling me that IRE automatically recalculates the BRP/BSL everytime it is run and it only looks at actual sales; in other words, lost sales are not factored in to the IRE screen. Still, what I referenced above were actual sales. Now I don't claim to be an expert on ADP (came from Reynolds) but I'm not buying this. I ran a stockorder and the same BRP/BSL numbers I referenced above are still there, unchanged in both screens. I think something in their system isn't working properly or I'm completely missing something here.

[partking]

If you are using weighted averages in your stock order calculations, the calculated average may be less than the total 6 month sales divided by 6. Older sales will count for less than more recent ones. Also check for a full bin entry in the master screen for the part number. Eliminate any you find. And if all else fails, trick the system by adding a per job of 2 in the master screen. These are the same as min and max in the Reynolds 2010 world.

[steve@gmdealer]

Did you finalize the order? BSL & BRP will not change until finalized. You can cancel it afterwards in RA. Are you a GM dealer? RIM will mess up BSL & BRP.

[Mike Nicholes]

In order for you to know how to properly set the BRP/BSL you need to know what 'software' release you are on. If you are on Drive, ask ADP (it might take several 'askings' for the document that outlines the use and calculation ofall the fields in IRO in Drive; It's your system and you have a right to this multiple page document. ADP, in all the older, software releases used a weighted guide that, based on the time of the month, looks at 16-18 weekly "buckets" of demand on the part number. The system does not calculate based on the daily demand cycles. In most cases, if you set the BRP/BSL under 28/30 the system will not have enough history to formulate a decent and accurate stocking level and will default to a sell one buy one (based on the Per Job number in the PJ field)

Using the Per Job, Ful Bin and the P/M, pack/mult fields you can pretty well handle the parts that cause most of the grief and those are the ones that sell 3-10 pieces per year. The function of source by movement, or as indicated, using PJ, FB, Pack/Mult will to the trick nicely. It will be a little difficult to get a straight answer out of customer service since fewer and fewer of them really know the capibilities of their own system.

First identify your own goals and then use the features withing the system to accomplish them.

Mike Nicholes

[JJS]

I appreciate all the help. I think that I understand the logic here with how they calculate BRP/BSL but in the process I uncovered something else. When we switched from Reynolds to ADP Drive I had them copy, duplicate or re-create my source setups which were "source by movement." I was actually quite skilled with Reynolds and played around with setups all the time, ADP is a whole other alien universe to me.

Anyways I noticed that every source I have is set up identical. In other words one source is for 100+ sales per year all the way down to 3-9 and 0-2 sales per year. Every one of them is 28/30 with 2 extra days. I also have EOQ cost breaks setup for each source as well. $0.00 - $8.99 has an extra 40 days down to no extra days after $90.00 (highline vehicle lines) I know the sources update and move like they are suppose to, I just don't see what difference it makes if all sources are the same...maybe I'm over-thinking this and it's fine.
So if my inventory is actually set up as source by movement is it still necessary to use Per Job, Full Bin, etc., or is there a change I can make in my source set up screen for my 3-9 sales per year source?

Also I just finished another web-chat with ADP and am convinced like Mike said; they really don’t know their product. First of all any related help menu’s for sourcing brings up an error, it won’t load or display anything; they are working on that. What I was looking for was a step by step printout for how to set up new parts sources, how it get’s tied to service and how to map it to the accounting side. I know menu “USA” in Service and menu “AGSC” in Accounting come in to play but I don’t have access and the people that do are comfortable with any changes.

Again, any help is appreciated.

[GM-gta]

When you set up a sale type for invoices you can set pricing and accounting info there.

For service the setup for RO pricing and accounting is setup in ULT update labor type.

[JustBob]

The problem with the change of software vendors is your new one did not know how to gather the parameters out of the previous vendors software. IF they were able to they still may not have been competent to set up the parameters to obtain the same results. In general most users are quite happy and comfortable with R+R but the person writing the check each month is not. Obviously ADP has a great many installations and it is generally adequate although some of their low end loss leader products are just crap. User satisfaction among ADP is usually lower. I used to 8-10 years ago seldom hear complaints about their support - no longer so.

FYI - ADP Dealer Services is being spun off from the other ADP divisions. Why? Most likely being unable to meet the growth desired in a market where potential customers are declining and strong competitors are picking their pockets every day taking customers away.