In your studies, you likely have depot buffer levels at central and regional depots. These buffer levels set minimum (and sometimes maximum) quantities to be held at a depot. Often, companies set these depots in terms of days of supply (DoS) equal to the lead time to that depot, plus some padding.
Configuring Depot Buffers in Bluefin
From the left-hand main menu, click Depots.
From your list of Depots, select the depot of interest.
Click the Buffer subtab link.
For each SKU, you can set the buffer at the depot.
Buffers are normally set in Days or Weeks of Supply.
For items with very low demand, it may make more sense to set buffer in absolute units (e.g. 15 means 15 units is the minimum buffer size).
✨ Note: the reorder point is automatically calculated based on min buffer and rate of demand.
Definition of Terms
Min Buffer: The minimum quantity remaining at a depot when a resupply arrives.
Max Buffer: The target -- and also maximum -- quantity of a SKU that will be held in inventory at a depot after resupply. Note that if insufficient material is available, the quantity after resupply may be short of this number.
Absolute and Days of Supply: Days of Supply is converted into a quantity based on demand within that window. Absolute refers to a specific number of units (only recommended when demand is very low, thus rendering the calculation unstable).
Reorder Point (RoP): The point in time at which a reorder is triggered, to ensure that supply arrives before the min stock is reached. This is automatically calculated by Bluefin based on a variety of factors, such as rate of demand and lead times.