VBC Tutorial – Supply Chain

Supplies and suppliers

If your company has stores, warehouses, farms, health centers, or factories, collaborating with suppliers and purchase planning will be an important part of managing your company. Things to consider: 

• Selecting one or several suppliers. You can order from several suppliers, it will reduce the risk of delivery failure (suppliers can change the conditions of the contract, deliver less than ordered, and even terminate the contract). However, in this case, the purchase price may be slightly higher. Instead, you can focus on ordering supplies from the supplier, who offers the best price. However, in case of delivery failure, you risk being left without the supply in the next game turn.
• To ensure the supply for large enterprises, the purchasing of seasonal agricultural products can be integrated into the supply chain of warehouses. Storing these products will help you balance out the supply. However, in this case, a certain amount of money is frozen.  
• Such indicators as price, quality, and brand tend to change. Check them regularly to make sure you are buying the best offer. Also, new suppliers with more attractive offers may appear on the market.
• Every store and factory has its warehouse. They can be used to store the goods. However, pay attention to the occupancy percentage.

A contract sample of Bread supply to the store:

Bear in mind the following factors:

• The supply of potatoes at the same time from two suppliers. The conditions of the contract are set for automatic termination in case quality drops below the set minimum or the price increases by more than 10%.
• The second supplier received an order of 20,000 units (the maximum number of units the supplier can deliver is no more than 30,000 per one-game turn). Currently, the supplier has 16 096 available units. In other words, the conditions of this particular contract are not entirely met. 

Supply functionality in Virtonomics

To manage your supplies, go to one of your subdivisions and click on the «Supply» tab.

Every warehouse has a certain specialization (it is selected when opening a warehouse). For factories, farms, and health centers the type of required materials is known beforehand.

For stores, you can order any product of your choice (if it is available on the market). Select product category and specific product.  The simulation will give you the list of available suppliers. They can be sorted based on price, quality, and brand. Select the supplier, select the volume of the number of products you would like to purchase, and select one of the following contract conditions: cancel the supply in case the price increases and quality drops, one-time purchase. Confirm the purchase by clicking on “Order”. You will receive your order after the nearest game turn.

If you order from two different suppliers and the product quality differs, you will receive products with average quality.