Decide whether a volume discount or MOQ is worth accepting
Weighs unit savings against carrying cost, cash, storage, and obsolescence risk to find the order quantity that actually saves money.
The prompt
Help me decide whether to accept a supplier's minimum order quantity (MOQ) or volume price break.
Item: [PART OR SKU, SHELF LIFE OR OBSOLESCENCE RISK]
Demand: [AVERAGE MONTHLY USAGE, HOW VARIABLE, FORECAST CONFIDENCE]
Price options: [e.g. "$4.20 at 1,000 units, $3.80 at 5,000, $3.50 at 10,000"]
Ordering cost: [COST PER ORDER - admin, freight, receiving, inspection]
Carrying cost rate: [e.g. 20-25% per year - cost of capital, storage, insurance, shrink]
Storage constraints: [SPACE AVAILABLE, EXTRA STORAGE COST]
Cash constraints: [BUDGET OR WORKING CAPITAL LIMITS, PAYMENT TERMS]
Lifecycle risk: [ENGINEERING CHANGES COMING? PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE?]
Steps:
1. Calculate the economic order quantity at each price break and the total annual cost (purchase + ordering + carrying) for each option.
2. Show months of supply each option creates and compare it to shelf life and lifecycle risk.
3. Estimate the obsolescence exposure if demand drops by a scenario I choose (default 30%).
4. Check cash and storage feasibility.
5. Suggest negotiation alternatives: same price with scheduled releases (blanket order), supplier-held stock, consignment, or a split delivery.
Use only my numbers; show formulas; mark assumptions [ASSUMPTION].
Return:
1. A comparison table: Option | Order qty | Months of supply | Annual total cost | Cash tied up | Obsolescence exposure.
2. The recommended option and the conditions that would change it.
3. A short message to the supplier proposing my preferred structure.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Data & Analysis prompts
What to fill in
- PART OR SKU, SHELF LIFE OR OBSOLESCENCE RISK
- AVERAGE MONTHLY USAGE, HOW VARIABLE, FORECAST CONFIDENCE
- e.g. "$4.20 at 1,000 units, $3.80 at 5,000, $3.50 at 10,000"
- COST PER ORDER - admin, freight, receiving, inspection
- SPACE AVAILABLE, EXTRA STORAGE COST
- BUDGET OR WORKING CAPITAL LIMITS, PAYMENT TERMS
- ENGINEERING CHANGES COMING? PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE?
- ASSUMPTION
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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