Continuing from my previous post, we then moved on to looking into demand planning.

What exactly is demand planning you may ask? Click here to find out.

We were told to pick products from a list given to us all by Richard; we were to use the sheets to fill up our ‘shops’ with different products. In order to judge what we would need within our ‘shops’, we were told that we would be picking our products based on the different seasons of the year. We had to judge how successful we thought the sales of the products would be during the different seasons, however, we did have a budget to work from, £5,000 which we could use over the course of the game.

Here are some guidelines for the game:

• Each group had to decide how they would spend their own money.
• Complete the order form and submit the order.
• A maximum of 5 products could be purchased per sales period (season), however groups could order less than 5 if they wished.
• When the sales figures came in after each session, each team then had to calculate their value of sales (unit selling price x quantity sold).
• Then calculate the value of this based on purchase value. Calculate the balance sheet business net worth.
• Start all over again.

My business partner and I decided we would spend the majority of our money to start with.  This strategy paid off during summer as we sold between 80 and 90% of our everyday items, and also between 50 and 60% of our alcoholic purchases. Could be something to do with the summer holidays and parents everywhere trying to cope?

The following season (autumn), we decided that the best products to buy would be things like soft drinks, beers and ice cream wafers as it was the summer months. We also had units of beer leftover which increased our stock. We continued to follow this tactic, basing our purchases on the seasons. As the game progressed, we continued to use the same tactic of ordering products based on the season. During the Christmas period, we chose to buy frozen turkeys and also spend a large amount of our budget on selection boxes. We managed to sell 100% of the selection boxes!! Therefore we made a pretty successful profit and reduced any possible wastage levels.

We had to take into account whether the food was perishable and if so, how long would it stay in date and popularity. This all linked in with the fundamental principles of mathematics:

• Statistics and data
• Problem solving
• Analytical skills
• Patterns

We did have calculators, and we were soon able to see the patterns that had began to form throughout the game but just because we had calculators does not mean that there was not an element of thinking involved. Some people lost their money because they ordered the wrong products, the ones which were not in demand during those seasons. We also had the option of buying ‘Premium Durian’, which only ever sold around 10-20%, therefore not a good buy as it would cost more to purchase than the profit made on them when sold.

Not very attractive looking is it? Yeah I was of the same opinion too!