Requirements – Merchandising Planning/Open to Buy (OTB)

Blog: Biz-Performance, David Brown

Merchandise Planning/OpentoBuy (OTB)

Overview

The Merchandise Planning/Open-to-Buy system provides management with a tool to measure and control purchases and with the means to monitor and analyse inventory levels and to compare actual against targeted inventory positions at the department, class, store, and style level.

Functions

Support “what if” analysis to assist management in developing a merchandise plan. Once the plan has been approved, it is automatically moved to Open-to-Buy, where only senior management can adjust it.
Planning/open-to-buy in retail currency and units
Create a plan based on the previous year’s history with the option to adjust all data elements
Planning/Open-to-Buy at the department/category and distribution center/store level (at any individual level or any combination)
Provide Planning/Open-to-Buy by week and month
Allow the Open-to-Buy to reflect last year, plan, and actual figures and percent of increase/decrease by month
Provide the capability for online inquiry, delete or update of the open-to-buy.

Additional Functions for Apparel Retailers

Planning/open-to-buy at the following levels:

Department
Class
Subclass
Store
Season

Provide the capability to revise Open-to-Buy plans based on the following:

Percentage distribution (e.g., department to classes)
Consolidated (e.g., classes to departments)
Replace actual number
Percentage increase or decrease
Recalculate inventory based on stock/sales ratio
Recalculate inventory based on number of weeks of stock

Planning/Open-to-Buy by week which includes the following elements:

Sales (optional breakdown by week)
Inventory at retail (end of week)
Shrinkage
Markdowns
Markups
Stock turns
Open to receive
Profit analysis

Reports

Vendor Analysis Report – Printed as required. This report show vendor (ontime) delivery performance, terms, address, item sales as a percent of total sales and total sales from the vendor’s merchandise.
Yearly Merchandise Plan By Month In Retail Currency– Printed monthly
Audit Trail Reflecting Any Changes In The Merchandise Plan – Printed as required
Open-to-Buy at the department/class, warehouse/store and district/area level (at any individual level or any combination) reflecting Retail currency
Exception Reporting – Create an Open-to-Buy for those departments / classes exceeding Open-to-Buy tolerances or those departments/classes outside of sales or inventory plan.

Additional Reports for Apparel Retailers

(Units) Ladder Plans by week, department, class, season
Open-to-Buy report options:

Total company
By department/season
By division/district/store
By market area/division/district/store
By buyer/class/division.Key Fields

Historical Sales Data (from inventory or sales system)
Plan Data

Plan identifier
Plan Year
Plan author
Department
Class
Subclass
Region
Store
Season
Period (e.g. week 1, week of 1/1, month 1, January)
Planned retail currency
Planned units
Planned inventory currency
Planned shrinkage units
Planned markdown currency
Planned markdown units
Planned markup currency
Planned markup units
Planned stock turns
Planned open to receive
Planned profit
Planned percentage retail currency increase/decrease over prior year
Planned percentage unit increase/decrease over prior year

Prior Year Plan data:

Plan identifier
Plan Year
Plan author
Department
Class
Subclass
Region
Store
Season
Period (e.g. week 1, week of 1/1, month 1, January)
Planned retail currency
Planned units
Planned inventory currency
Planned shrinkage units
Planned markdown currency
Planned markdown units
Planned markup currency
Planned markup units
Planned stock turns
Planned open to receive
Planned profit
Planned percentage retail currency increase/decrease over prior year
Planned percentage unit increase/decrease over prior year

Plan revision History Data

Plan revision date
Plan revision number
Plan revision author
Revision description/comments.