Consumption & Advanced Settings

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. CommTrack provides the feature of automatic consumption calculation based on information including stock on hand and average monthly consumption. By definition, AMC is the average quantity of products dispensed to users in the most recent three months. That said, there is no way to get an AMC in the first three months of a CommTrack system. To solve the problem, we use the default monthly consumption value for each product as a proxy for average monthly consumption. Once the system receives data for more than three months, dynamic AMC would be available for automatic consumption calculation. 

If you do not want to use CommTrack automatic calculation, you can just estimate monthly consumption by using default monthly consumption data. Still, using consumption data from one month is risky as consumption fluctuates - might be risky to use as a reference for decision making. 

There are two ways to configure monthly consumption values:

Option 1: Setup/Consumption

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

Option 2: Setup/Advanced Settings

1) Select 'Use automatic consumption calculation'. 

2) Select 'Configure consumption defaults individually by supply point' if your default consumption level varies by supply points. Then click the link 'bulk location import page' and download current location data: 'location.xslx'

3) Open the file and fill in default consumption values for each product at each supply point in columns with names formatted as 'PROGRAMNAME_PRODUCTNAME' (i.e. default_pp)

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?

CommTrack would default to the value inputs you put in the location data file. If you have filled in the default consumption value for every single product at every reporting facility, it would override the default consumption value for products that you have filled in under Setup. However, if there is any supply point location which has no consumption value input, the default consumption value associated with this supply point would default to the 'Setup' value.