This section includes a number of use cases for the Limit award rule. You can use these examples to help you create similar and different rules for your scenarios.
Ensuring a bidder is not awarded specific lots
Consider a scenario where there are two lanes where on-time delivery is a priority. A bidder, Unreliable Shipping Inc., often offers very competitive rates, but isn’t always reliable for getting goods to their destination on time. We want to prioritize on-time delivery over cost for these specific lots, so we ensure that Unreliable Shipping Inc. is not awarded the lots.
Example explained:
- First, we select Lots, because this is the metric by which we want to limit the award.
- Next, we select the bidder, Unreliable Shipping Inc., from the Specific bidders list.
- Then, we select the two lots that we do not want to award to the bidder, from the Specific lots list.
- Finally, we enter 0 in the At most field to specify that nothing from these lots is awarded to the bidder.
Steps:
- Go to Evaluate > Scenarios.
- Click Add a scenario, or click on an existing scenario in the Scenarios table.
- On the Rules tab, on the Limit award rule, click add.
- Under Limit the award of, click Lots.
- Under for, click Specific bidders, and then select the checkbox of the bidder you do not want to award the lots to from the Select a bidder list.
- Under on, click Specific lots, and then select the checkboxes of the lots you do not want to award to the bidder from the Select a lot list.
- Under to, click At most, and then enter 0 in the Enter a value field.
- At the top of the Rules tab, click Save changes.
Force-awarding a lot to a bidder
In this example, we have an excellent relationship with a bidder that has consistently provided on-time delivery and quality of service for specific goods. The specific lot is a niche product that historically has limited providers. Even though new suppliers are entering this market, our priority is to guarantee that these goods are delivered, and we know that the incumbent, Ddd Movers, has an excellent track record.
However, our analysts have identified that there may be a cost impact for this rule at which point would not make financial sense for the company to enforce this rule. We anticipate that switching suppliers could cost approximately $300,000. To account for this, we set a relaxation threshold. Any cost impact above $300,000 will cost us more than it is worth, and as a result, the rule will be ignored in the scenario evaluation.
Example explained:
- First, we select Lots, because this is the metric by which we want to limit the award.
- Next, we select the bidder, Ddd Movers, from the Specific bidders list.
- Then, we select the lot that we want to ensure is awarded to the bidder, from the Specific lots list.
- Next, we enter 1 in the Exactly field to specify that this exact lot is awarded to the bidder.
- Finally, we enter 300000 in the Relaxation threshold field, because if the cost impact of enforcing this rule is higher than $300,000, it will cost us more to force-award this lot to Ddd Movers than it is worth to us.
This example ensures one lot is awarded to the bidder. As another example, if we wanted to ensure five specific lots are awarded to the bidder, we would first select the five lots from the Specific lots list, and then enter 5 in the Exactly field.
Steps:
- Go to Evaluate > Scenarios.
- Click Add a scenario, or click on an existing scenario in the Scenarios table.
- On the Rules tab, on the Limit award rule, click add.
- Under Limit the award of, click Lots.
- Under for, click Specific bidders, and then select the checkbox of the bidder you want to award the lot to from the Select a bidder list.
- Under on, click Specific lots, and then select the checkbox of the lot you want to award to the bidder from the Select a lot list.
- Under to, click Exactly, and then enter 1 in the Enter a value field.
- Click the Rule details tab.
- Enter the value of the relaxation threshold in the Relaxation threshold field.
- At the top of the Rules tab, click Save changes.
Awarding at least $10,000 in spend to a bidder
Let’s consider again the importance of a reliable supplier. In this example, we have a great long-term relationship with a particular bidder, Reliable Shipper. They are a small, local provider, who have helped us in the past with last-minute solutions to unforeseen supply issues. Although other larger providers may be more competitive in pricing, they have not yet shown a similar quality of service or dependability as Reliable Shippers. We want to continue and strengthen our business relationship with Reliable Shippers and so, we ensure that a certain amount of turnover or spend is awarded to them.
Example explained:
- First, we select Turnover, because this is the metric by which we want to limit the award; we want to ensure that a bidder is awarded at least $10,000 in spend.
- Next, we select the bidder, Reliable Shipper, from the Specific bidders list.
- Then, we select All lots because the $10,000 in spend can be spread over all lots in the event.
- Finally, we enter 10000 in the At least field to ensure that at least $10,000 in spend is awarded to the bidder.
Steps:
- Go to Evaluate > Scenarios.
- Click Add a scenario, or click on an existing scenario in the Scenarios table.
- On the Rules tab, on the Limit award rule, click add.
- Under Limit the award of, click Turnover.
- Under for, click Specific bidders, and then select the checkbox of the bidder you want to award at least $10,000 in spend to from the Select a bidder list.
- Under on, click All lots.
- Under to, click At least, and then enter 10000 in the Enter a value field.
- At the top of the Rules tab, click Save changes.
Award at most 4000 of volume to a bidder
Consider a situation where we have a bidder, Slow Freight Company, who, while quite reliable and competitive in terms of pricing, tend to have longer delivery times. We need 10,000 barrels of chemicals supplied over the next six months, but due to immediate production commitments, we must have 6,000 barrels delivered in the next month. Knowing that Slow Freight Company cannot guarantee that these goods will be supplied in a timely manner, but that they are competitive and their goods will be supplied within the long-term window, we ensure that they are not awarded more than 4,000 barrels in volume.
Example explained:
- First, we select the Forecasted Quantity bid sheet column from the Other list because this is the metric by which we want to limit the award.
- Next, we select the bidder, Slow Freight Company, from the Specific bidders list.
- Then, we select All lots because the 4000 in volume can be spread over all lots in the event.
- Finally, we enter 4000 in the At most field to specify that no more than 4000 in volume is awarded to the bidder.
Steps:
- Go to Evaluate > Scenarios.
- Click Add a scenario, or click on an existing scenario in the Scenarios table.
- On the Rules tab, on the Limit award rule, click add.
- Under Limit the award of, click Other, and select the bid sheet column containing the volume you want to limit the award of.
- Under for, click Specific bidders, and then select the checkbox of the bidder you want to limit the award of volume to from the Select a bidder list.
- Under on, click All lots.
- Under to, click At most, and then enter 4000 in the Enter a value field.
- At the top of the Rules tab, click Save changes.