Doctor Archive
Thread: A tool to aid Docs, Chefs, and Combat Medics with product pricing and stocking
Page 1 of 1
beyowulf
Tue Jan 18, 2005 9:58 pm
#1
For some time now I've been using and enhancing an Excel spreadsheet I use to price all my products and to help me do vendor posting. The price model is designed to be easy to use and doesn't require someone to maintain accurate, continous records of inventory costs. In it's present iteration (version 12), it supports every schematic for Chefs, CMs, and Docs.
The spreadsheet operates off of some simple assumptions:
- You input your average base cost of inventory. Say for example that most of your inventory averages around 4 CPU.
- Special higher cost items such as Avian meat, Herbivore meat, Bone, Milk, and generic meats each have an additional cost that can be input to compensate for their higher average cost.
- The costs for producing each item are built into the model at average costs. This means that if your experimental complexity is higher or lower then average, the included costs for factory power and maintence per unit produced will be slightly off.
Once you've set these assumptions, you can input a desired profit margin for your products and the model will automatically price all your products accordingly. In addition, the posting sheet provides a column with prices by 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 unit case lots.
I'm willing to share this with anyone in the community that is interested in using it. If you'd like a copy, please send a request to [email protected]and I'll send you a copy. If I get more then a few requests, I'll find a place to post the file so that it can be downloaded directly from the web.
beyowulf
Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:10 am
#2
I also have a tool that tracks the status of harvesters on a resource-it used to be part of the pricing tool, but I removed it about six versions ago. You input the harvester type, concentration on the site,and time of placement and it tells you in real time your harvest, maintenance use, and power consumption. If anyone is interested in this as well, just let me know.
Ledao
Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:56 pm
#3
Both of these tools sound very cool. I can't wait to see 'em. Just sent you an email. 
Rere
Thu Jan 20, 2005 9:10 am
#4
Omg. This tool is simply amazing, Beyowulf.
Any serious crafter should look into it. Thanks so much for sharing it.
beyowulf
Thu Jan 20, 2005 12:27 pm
#5
I realized something embarassing...at least a bit. The spreadsheet tool is called "Defintitive Product Pricing Tool R12.XLS". I've had a couple of folks respond thinking that it's called Definitive because that's what I think the tool is.
As evidenced by my sig, that's the name of the group of crafters I co-founded.
And thanks for the compliment, Rerinha. We've put a lot of work into the spreadsheet to make it powerful, but easy to use.
Trujillo
Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:23 am
#6
This tool rocks, Beyowulf! I usually don't post, but this is a great help to any Doc. Great work!
beyowulf
Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:56 am
#7
I'd like to thank those that have taken a look at the tool and who have then given me some feedback. I've tried to keep the tool as powerful as possible without creating a lot of extra work, but some of the ideas suggested add nice functionality without adding much if any work. As a result of that feedback, I'm adding this functionality to the sheet:
- The ability to have three different resource costs for each item: The base cost, a lookup from a named resource sheet, and an manual cost entered for just the one item.
- On the pricing page I'vealready added the ability to input your own range of percentages then compare them to average market prices that you can input on the sheet. So, for example you can say that your margin chocies are 50, 60, 70, and 80 percent and the sheet will compare the +/- of your projected margins against the market average price for that item that you enter on the sheet.
- I'm going to add an integrated buff planning tool that, based on the amount and price of avian meat you input, will tell you exactly what you need to make in components/use of resources in each factory as well as what the buffs will cost./use of resources in each factory as well as what the buffs will cost.
When I complete the changes, I'll send up updated copy to anyone that is interested.
Benjoron
Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:49 am
#8
When you get the buff planning tool ready, I'd like a copy. The rest of this is great.
Message Edited by Benjoron on 01-27-2005 06:50 AM
mechweb
Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:14 am
#9
Thank you for spending the time to make this tool, it is extremely helpful.
WobbleMin
Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:28 pm
#10
helluva tool...with this, my Docs will re-start in the stim/woundpack business..
Wibblo / Wobble / Koolbacca
Wibblo / Wobble / Koolbacca
beyowulf
Sun Jan 30, 2005 3:03 pm
#11
EDITED TO SAY: Sorry...I posted on the wrong thread. I'll repost this there as well.
OK...I'm pretty busy this weekend, but I've got some initial statistics on Stim sales to share while I'm still getting all the analysis done.
To recap, this is based on sales in one location from September through late January. I have compared the results to my other shops and they match up within a small margin of statistical error, even thoughone location has a far higher percentage of PvP players as residents of the city. The Riverlands location being evaluated is on Corellia, approximately 3300M S/SE of Doaba Guerfel on the Gold Beaches.The location has had historically high retailtraffic because ofthe number of well-know crafters that have or havehad shops there. During thesales period in question, Felton Kel (the WSCorrespondent) and Bastilaa (Master Shipwright) were among the vendors with shops in Riverlands in addition to our company's (Definitive, Inc), three well-known crafters....An'na (buff packs), Amandil (Chef), and myself (standard meds).
Stim sales during the period were 24,298units at a sales price of 25,448,180 credits.
Stim-A
Total sales of 650 units (2.68% of overall units sold) and 78,000 credits (.31% of overall sales in credits). The average sales price for Stim-A during the period was 120 credits.
Stim-B
Total sales of11,902 units (48.98% of overall units sold) and 9,856,400 credits (38.77% of overall sales in credits). Theaverage sales price for Stim-B during the period was830 credits.
Stim-C
Total sales of1,757 units (7.23% of overall units sold) and 1,462,980 credits (5.75% of overall sales in credits) Theaverage sales price for Stim-C during the period was830 credits.
Stim-D
Total sales of7,546 units (31.06% of overall units sold) and 10,062,000 credits (39.54% of overall sales in credits). Theaverage sales price for Stim-D during the period was1,330 credits.
Stim-E
Total sales of2,443 units (10.05% of overall units sold) and 3,979,600 credits (15.64% of overall sales in credits). Theaverage sales price for Stim-D during the period was1,660 credits.
Notes on items effecting these sales numbers:
- Stim-A were not in stock for the last half of the sales period
- Stim-E were not in stock for the whole sales period and in the last 45 days the product line was changed to stock a mix of MU40 and MU45 Stim-E
- Product stocking is split into singles, 5-pack crates, 10-pack crates, 25-pack crates, and 50-pack crates.
- There were price changes on all products during the sales period. Price changes up or down did not effect demand....although pricing even at the high side was still just below market averages.
- Our shops are destination shopping locations, as the shops will have an assortment of key vendors. The Riverlands shop has CM, Composite/Wookie armor, BE products, Smuggler supplies, foods, meds, medical resources, medical components, and DE products.
When the spreadsheet is ready, you'll be able tolook at the raw sales of each item by day for the location, as well as the breakdown of sales by crate pack size. It's probably going to take a few more days to get the sheet ready, since my schedule is still pretty hectic. I am going to have the sheet set up hosted for access by everyone and I'll post the updated version of my planning sheet there as well.
Message Edited by beyowulf on 01-30-2005 04:05 PM
Page 1 of 1