Reordering frames and shipping cost

[opticaljim]

I am a manager of a 3 office ophthalmology practice. I would like some advice or ideas on how other people reorder their frames. Do you sell of the board and use tags to reorder? If so what type of tags do you use? How often do you re-order, and how do you keep shipping cost down? We have a very busy practice and run through frames at a fast rate, I don't want to carry excess overstock. I would like to implement a re-order procedure, but the tag system we tried was a failure. We were using arch crown tags and pulled them as we sold them. We had them separated by vender and tried to have the Opticians order bi-weekly. We do not use a computer system as of yet. Any suggestions on a manual system that works well? Also we incure alot of cost in shipping on ordering Rx frames. Does anyone have a suggestion on reducing shipping cost on these orders. Should I have a central location that all three offices send the orders to and have them ordered at one time? Any suggestions on how other offices handle this would be appreciated.

Jim

[Fezz]

I would suggest each office have a "frame master", who handles writing down, or pulling the tags from the frames. Then you or someone who you could delegate could reorder twice a week? I generally pull from stock and reorder every other day, unless emergency or rush that I have to reorder daily. Problem is, when you pull the frame.....it won't sell again until it is replaced. You should keep your "stars" on the board and have a very slight overstock on them. I usually have a real good feel for sell thru and keep a few size, and color options in back stock on my "stars" and "rising stars". The "falling stars" and "dogs" I usually weed out and use that frame board space for the next big thing. I keep track of frames in a Marchon frame reordering book, Order Master I think is what it is called(basically a notebook). I just like the way it is set up. Keep as few people involved so you don't get double ordrs, missplaced orders and the such. Sorry so long winded.


Fezz
:cheers:

[PAkev]

I kind of disagree about alienating other staff members from the frame ordering process. I once worked for a large chain retailer that sent prepackaged orders based upon computerized data from frames which had been sold. The problem I and others observed; it was very difficult to get excited and convey confidence to patients about redundant styles or styles that someone in another demographic culture thought was most appropriate for our location. It was also difficult to sell additional pairs when folks came in 6-12 months later for an adjustment or for lens cleaner and saw the same inventory styles as when they bought their eyewear.

Staff members input can be a valuable resource while also developing an intrinsic challenge to take responsibility of moving a style they are excited about and have confidence in.

[Fezz]

Let me clarify. I do not think that you should alienate anybody. What I do believe is that one person should be responsible for handling the actual reorder process. EX. Fezz , Pakev, and Chris are the opticians in shop "A". They all have input as to what styles work, what they want to sell, etc, etc. But...Pakev takes care of writing down or tracking what has been sold and gives that info to the manager of all three shops so they can do the actual ordering.


Fezz
:cheers:

[cinders831]

I realize I may be the exception.....I manage the optical dept in our independant office. I keep a back stock. Usually 5 deep and a little more on the super seller lines. So my boards are filled and tucked away are baskets with the "brands"name on them. When a rep comes in and I order I order to fill the board spots and usually five extra. This has been great as we greatly reduced our shipping cost, the amount of time we spend adding frames into our inventory system (computer generated) and we are able to purchase new product when its available. Sometimes those old dogs finally sell and if there tag is put in the basket...you are just ordering another old dog that you were so happy to see go. So I am a backstocker, I see reps 4 ties a year and sometimes the great lines need supplimenting inbetween and I handle that as it comes. Hope this sheds some light. BTW, we have been doing the backstock thing for about 5 years and it works super for us.

CIndy

[lguess]

We're in kind of a similar situation as Opticaljim- we have three stores, but unfortunately they're far apart from each other as well from our "corporate" office. The closest store to our office is about 100 miles away so just stopping by to check out the frame stock situation is a bit difficult. Again like Opticaljim, we do not use computers in the stores. Here's what we've come up with so far, and if anyone out there has ideas to improve it I'd love to hear from them.


We sell "off the board". The store sends the frame to the lab and replaces it on the board from a small backstock kept at each store. It might not be the same exact frame, but it at least fills the "hole" left by the frame just sold. The stores send a copy of the retail order (we use a 3 part form) along with the lab invoice to us once a week via Priority Mail. We keep a 3- frame deep stock of the most popular frames here at our office. As soon as we receive the package from the store we fill what we can and ship those frames same day to the store via UPS. Frames that we don't have at the central office are ordered from the distributor that same day. The thing I like about this system is that we are able to "audit" the sales order and the lab invoice: Incorrect pricing by the optician or the lab, errors in fitting, etc. etc. can be spotted and corrected rather quickly. So far, this system has worked fairly well although I'd like to tweak it to improve getting product back to the stores in a more timely manner- the current setup can take as long as two weeks if we don't have a particular frame in stock here at our business office. Hope this helps.

Larry

[Johns]

I have 5 stores, all within a 50 mile radius. We have a currier that makes daily rounds with deliveries. We also use the back stock method. We stock around 7,000 frames and we send to the other stores from the main office which is also the flagship store and lab. It has really allowed us to keep a handle on where the inventory is, what is moving, and reduces the opportunity for shrinkage. Frames can be ordered from any store for patients to view, but they are all shipped through the main office first.

It works for us.