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Why is it important to set up default monthly consumption values for products?

Successful logistics systems are all characterized by appropriate product availability in constantly changing circumstances. Data and information on the quantity of goods distributed or consumed by customers is important for supervisors to make logistics decisions. 

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What is Default Monthly Consumption and why is this useful?

If you are only interested in knowing the absolute number of stock available at different locations, you do not need to use Monthly Consumption values. However, often times in order to answer the question of "when will we run out?" and "how much should we order?", you will need some sense of the rate of consumption of different products. For example, two clinics may both have 1,000 boxes of aspirin in stock, but the one that is consuming 300 boxes a day is in a much more urgent situation than the one consuming 100 boxes a day.

CommCare Supply provides the feature of automatic consumption calculation based on products that are consumed in certain the usage of products within a specified date range. 

stock on hand and average monthly consumption.

AMC is the average quantity of products dispensed to users in most recent product transactions. You can get a view of average monthly consumption of each registered product from Inventory Report. One way to get that piece of information is by providing a Default Consumption Per Product

To provide default monthly consumption data as follows:Default Consumptionper product:

1. Click 'Setup' and select 'Consumption'.
2. Fill in default consumption value for each product and Update consumption info.
 

Default Consumption Per Product Per Supply Point

1) Under Setup-> Advanced Settings

Still, using consumption data from one month is risky as consumption in real world fluctuates - might be risky to use as a reference for decision making. CommTrack does provide an automatic consumption calculation feature in CommTrack to help projects forecast consumption within a specific date range for any given supply point. CommTrack needs the following data input to calculate the dynamic monthly consumption:

1. minimum transaction (count): e.g. 3
2. minimum window for calculation (days): e.g. 3
3. optimal window for calculation (days): e.g. 15

In this scenario a mobile agent has to report at least 3 stock on hand reports over at least 3 days before CommTrack can calculate a monthly consumption automatically. Users can fill in any number here but the bigger the number, the better the result of monthly consumption calculation would be. 

1) Select 'Use automatic consumption calculation'. 

2) Select , select 'Configure consumption defaults individually by supply point' if your default consumption level varies by supply points. (See image below)

2) Then click the link 'bulk location import page' and download current location data: 'location.xslx'

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4) Save and upload the location file. Go to Setup and under Manage Locations, select any reporting facility you registered. Scroll down and you will see the unchangeable default consumption value for each product. 

What would happen if you do both?

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Automatic Monthly Consumption

CommCare Supply can also automatically calculate consumption rates per product based on historical behaviour within a specified date range. CommCare Supply needs the following data to calculate the dynamic monthly consumption. These can be found in the 'Advanced Settings' under Setup.

1. Select 'Use automatic consumption calculation'. 
2.  Set minimum transaction (count): e.g. 3
3. Set minimum window for calculation (days): e.g. 5
4.  Set optimal window for calculation (days): e.g. 15

In this scenario a mobile agent has to report at least 3 stock on hand reports over at least 5 days before CommCare Supply can calculate a monthly consumption automatically.  

You must always specific a Default Monthly Consumption

When 'use automatic consumption calculation' is not checked, CommCare Supply will use the default values provided.

Even when 'Use automatic consumption calculation' IS checked, it will take some time for CommCare Supply to have enough data to automatically calculate consumption values. It will use the default values provided until there is enough data to automatically calculate consumption.  

For more information on how the algorithm works: Automatic consumption calculation algorithm