How do you feel about blanket orders? Love them? Hate them? Can’t live with them / Can’t live without them?
We’ve been hearing the good, the bad, and the ugly (mostly the latter) from our customers too. So, we’ve compiled a list of best blanket order practices for anyone else who may be dealing with this necessary evil from their vendor.
1. Whenever possible, don’t do it. They are, broadly, a pain to deal with and often not worth the effort. If the vendor is simply trying to understand volume or secure pricing, give them a purchase forecast using something like ‘ Firm-And-Planned data.
2. Make sure they are numbered or marked in a special way to identify them in the so they don’t get lost in the sea of normal PO’s.
3. Use unique numbers for each release against the blanket rather than decrementing line quantity on the one order – receipt history and lead time calculations are hosed as a result.
4. Use the history of releases against the blanket to track how much is left.
5. If you must use them, see if you can get the vendor to agree to shorter lead times, eg, have them pre-build and ship from their stock versus you enduring manufacturing lead time every time an order is placed.
What do you think? I’m sure there are tips I’ve missed. We would love to hear tips from you.
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