HS ASC: Labor rule buffers and thresholds

Clients that use Activity Based Forecasting (ABF) create labor rules in the Above Store Console (ASC). Here are details on some of the elements you set up in the rules. 

BUFFERS

Not to be confused with Minimum Head Counts, Buffers allow you to add Labor to what is projected for each interval of time.  If 0 hours are projected for an interval, the Buffer will not be added, but the Minimum will be.

In the example above, the Labor Rule would look at the number of Products for an interval of time, and determine how many In store are needed.  From there, the Rule looks at the Buffer, and then the Minimum and Maximum.

• If the 5 products wasn’t hit, we would need 0 "In store".
• Because the number stands at 0, the Buffer of 1 would not be applied.
• The Minimum of 1 would then be applied to give us 1 "In store" for the Interval.

Let’s say we hit the 5 Products.

• We are now projected to have 1 "In store" for the Interval.
• The Labor Rule then looks at the Buffer of 1, and applies it.
• Because we have 2 "In Store" now, there is no need to apply the Minimum of 1.

In the example above, the Maximum is pretty low.  What happens when the Buffer pushes us over?

• If there are 15 Products, and we want 1 "In Store" for every 5, the Labor Rule will give us 3 "In store".
• With a Buffer of 1, the Rule will add 1 to 3 to give us 4.
• In this situation, we will never have more Labor generated than the Maximum, so we will be left with 3 In " Store".

THRESHOLDS

Labor Drivers will never come in exact amounts.  For example, if we want 1 Dishwasher for every 30.03003 Guests, it probably isn’t a good idea to wait until we have exactly 60.06006 Guests to bring in another Dishwasher.  We can combat this with Thresholds. Unless otherwise defined, the Labor Tool will always add Labor at 25%. Let’s look at another example to learn how Thresholds are applied.

• We need 1 Dishwasher for every 30.03003 Guests.
• Our Threshold is 25%
• 30.03003 multiplied by .25 is 7.5075075.
• 7.5075075 added to 30 gives us 37.5075075

With our 25% Threshold defined in the Definition tab, we’re telling the Labor Tool to calculate the Labor based on the other requirements of the Rule, and add an additional Dishwasher to each interval of time that exceeds 25% of the basic rule of 1 Dishwasher for every 30.03003 Guests.