FOUR SUPPLY CHAIN ENTITIES: Products –> Facilities –> Vehicles –> Routes
Facilities are places where products are made, stored, consumed or sold. A facility can be a factory, warehouse, store, harbor, airport, or any other place you want to define.
Create a new facility by clicking on “Facilities” in the menu on the right side of the screen (1) as shown below, and then click the “New” button (2).
[ Access this Online Guide — click “Help” button in upper right of any SCM Globe application screen ]
(click on screen image for bigger picture)
A dialog box (3) for facilities opens up. Enter facility name and address (address is optional). Select facility type from drop down list (4). Depending on type of facility you selected, default values will appear. Accept the default values for the fields shown, or type over them with more accurate numbers. Click “Update” button when finished:
- Name: Character String for name and address
- Type: Sets facility icon (doesn’t dictate how facility operates, see “Adding Products to a Facility” section below)
- Max Storage Capacity: storage space for on-hand products in cubic meters (m3)
- Daily Rent Cost per m3: cost per cubic meter for storage space
- Daily Operating Cost: non-rent expenses such as labor, utilities, insurance, etc.
- Daily Carbon Output: amount of carbon generated each day in kilograms
- Demand per day: amount of a given product needed each day at a facility
- Production per day: amount of a given product produced each day at a facility
- Quantity on hand: amount of a given product already on-hand at a facility at the start of a simulation
- Sales Markup (%): markup on a given product at a facility (defaults to 0)
Always click the “Update” button in the facility dialog box after entering or editing data or the changes made will not be saved.
“Maximum Storage Capacity” is a characteristic you define for a facility and it directly relates to the amount of on-hand product inventory that can be stored at a facility. For instance, if there is a product, Product A, and it has a size of 1 cubic meter (m3) and a weight of 40 kilograms. And if you have 100 of Product A on-hand at a facility, it will require 100 m3 of storage space.
“Daily Rent Cost per m3” is also a characteristic you define for a facility. This rent cost is multiplied by the maximum storage capacity to calculate daily rent cost for the whole facility. So a facility’s rent cost will increase or decrease as you increase or decrease the amount of storage space available at a facility.
“Daily Operating Cost” for a facility is the fixed overhead related to running the facility. It includes costs such as labor cost, utility cost, insurance cost etc. It can also include standard cost allocations for costs such as property taxes, annual maintenance and related costs.
Click on the map to place this facility at a certain location (5); drag and drop to adjust location. You can initially place a facility in the general area where it belongs and later come back to adjust the location. You can zoom in on the map and/or switch to satellite picture view to find the exact location of a facility.
The facility “type” is used only to set the facility icon and default values for the facility. Facility type doesn’t affect the handling of products. You can type over any default values that are originally assigned to a facility.
Adding Products to a Facility and Changing Facility Data or Location
A facility needs at least one product assigned to it before you can save it. Assigning items to a facility will allow for vehicles to deliver that product to or from that facility. Assign a product by clicking on “Product” in the facility dialog box (1). New dialog box for adding product opens up (2).
Facilities contain products, and for each product they have demand, production, and on-hand quantities. On-hand is the quantity of a product the facility will start with when the simulation begins. Demand and production numbers are calculated daily for each product and on-hand amounts are adjusted accordingly. When assigning a product to a facility you need to set the values as shown in the add products dialog box (2). These values determine how your facility will operate:
- Demand Per Day: The amount of product the facility will consume per day (may be 0).
- Production Per Day: The amount of product the facility will create per day (may be 0).
- Quantity On Hand: The amount of product the facility has on hand when the simulation starts – all facilities must start simulations with on-hand inventory equal to 2 days demand or more.
- Sales Markup (%): The amount defaults to zero. If you enter a markup percentage (use integer numbers) that markup will be used to calculate facility revenue in the automatic reports available in the SCM Globe Pro software.
Click “Add” button (3) to add the product to the facility. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 as needed to assign more products to a facility. Click “Update” button (4) at bottom of facilities dialog box when finished.
NOTE: A warehouse does not need product demand assigned to it unless the warehouse itself uses products. Otherwise inventory levels at a warehouse are fully accounted for by the amounts of products that vehicles deliver and take from a warehouse to make deliveries to other facilities.
Change the location or data of an existing facility by going to the Edit screen and clicking on the icon for that facility or the facility name in the list of names in the Facilities menu on the right side of the screen. A dialog box will open up for the highlighted facility. You can then drag and drop the facility to move it to a new location. And you can change facility data by typing over any data in the dialog box. Remove a product from a facility by clicking on the red “X” next to the product on the right side of the facility dialog box.
Remove a facility by clicking on the facility icon or highlighting the facility name in the list of facilities in the Facilities menu; then click the “Remove” button in the upper right corner of the Edit screen (it’s next to the “Edit” button).