I am having a bit of a computer programming challenge, c#, however the actual issue I believe stems from myself not understanding the maths behing it, hence me posting here...
So my challenge.
We have a number of products that need to be sold, like this...
| PRODUCT | INSTOCK | SOLD |
|---|---|---|
| SKU1 | 100 | 50 |
| SKU2 | 200 | 30 |
| SKU3 | 300 | 75 |
I need to figure out 51% of the total unsold, which is going to be a target for a sales team.
So far I go ok thats fine I can go (INSTOCK - SOLD) gives me my unsold, add it all up and get 51%, but this is a circular solution as when more is sold it will alter this calculation forever moving and relying on itself.
So then is it as simple as suming all instock and sold and comparing so...
SUM OF SOLD / SUM of INSTOCK * 100 and checking if this is 51%, this seems to simple to me and overly favouritable to the sales team. The challenge here is to get 51% of the total unsold, so the difference between instock and sold.
My question is then what is best math solution to figure out this challenge, is there a simple technique I am missing.
Thanks in advance
Your calculation is correct. With these data, the target is to sell (essentially) half of what's left in stock - about 450 of the 600 you started with.
It is true that
If the goal is set week by week then in each week the goal is to sell half of what's still in stock. If no new new stock appears, then if the goal is met the unsold stock on hand halves each week and approaches $0$. If new stock appears the sales team has more work to do - they should always sell half of what's on hand.