Music Trade Review
Issue: 1923 Vol. 76 N. 11 - Page 11
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MARCH 17,
11
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1923
Spreading Orders Through the Year
The Relation Between Dealers' Orders and Factory Production and Shipments Showing the Burden Thrown
on the Piano Industry Through Concentrating Instead of Averaging Shipments—Graphic Charts
Based on Actual Figures Show Fallacy of Present Ordering Methods
It is now generally recognized in .the trade
that the solution of the problem of keeping the
piano manufacturing business on a sound eco-
nomic basis depends primarily upon the will-
ingness of the retail merchant to place his stock
orders well in advance, arrange for shipments
divided as equally as possible among the twelve
months of the year, rather than having them
concentrated in four or five months, and co-
operate with the manufacturer to the extent of
being willing to store excess stock during more
or less dull periods in order to insure having
it at hand when the busy season arrives.
There have been reported in detail in The
Review the plans of several manufacturers for
keeping their plants running throughout the
year on a regular and steady basis by insisting
upon advance orders from dealers and dividing
shipments into monthly quotas as evenly as
possible. There have been told, too, the stories
of manufacturers who have taken most of
the burden on their own shoulders and made up
surplus stock in dull seasons, as in late Spring
and Summer, for taking care of in part the
surplus orders received during the Fall and holi-
day season without necessitating overtime work
during those periods as compared with half-
time employment during off-months.
More Dealers Averaging Deliveries
The facts of the situation as presented by
manufacturers who have really gone into the
matter thoroughly are distinctly interesting, for
they show that an increasing number of re-
tailers are showing an inclination of their own
free will to "average" their monthly orders
during the year for their own production as
much as to aid the manufacturers. It is signifi-
cant that the majority of the larger dealers are
now, and have been for some years, placing
advance orders and having monthly deliveries
made more or less regularly throughout the
year as a means of protection should any sud-
den impetus in sales make itself evident.
This averaging of orders and deliveries is not
filled may mean the loss of several sales and
put a check on that very important matter of
frequent turnover which is the salvation of the
retailer of limited capital.
It is asserted, and with reason, that the trade
situation during the first two or three months
of the current year cannot be taken as a fair
JflN FEE MBR, APR MHY JUNE; JULY, flUG v SEPT t OCT, NOV, P£C V
i\
24
Z0%
\
JQ
12.
CHART 1
This chart tends to show the successful efforts of a small dealer to average his orders to a certain extent through the
twelve months. The heavy line indicates how he formerly placed his orders, so that sixty-six per cent of the year's
deliveries fell in three months and the balance, of thirty-four per cent, in five months, with no deliveries at all during
April and the Summer months of June, July and August. The broken line shows that lie later ordered less heavily,
although close to his average quota, during the first three months of the year and during the three Summer months,
when the factory was not so busy, received thirty-four per cent of his shipments, getting another twenty-four per
cent in September in time for the opening of the Fall business. In this case the dealer's deliveries were so arranged
as to offset poor ordering on the part of other merchants. The unbroken, horizontal line represents a theoretical unvarying
production of eight and one-third per cent a month
example of normal conditions as they have
prevailed during other years and may be ex-
pected to prevail in the future. Thus far this
year the problem with most factories has been
that of taking care of the volume of orders on
hand and coming in with some degree of
promptitude rather than of looking for busi-
ness to keep the plants going.
Drafting Schedules for the Future
With this condition existing it is of course
quite easy to plan more or less fixed produc-
M . FE6. MflR. flPR. fflff, JUNfr JUL^ flUC, SEPT, OCT V HQ\ PEC
21,
Z
18
13
85
^
o
CHART 2
This chart illustrates accurately just how a large dealer managed without burden to himself to readjust his orders and
deliveries in a way to bring relief to the manufacturer. The heavy line shows his former method of ordering taken from
actual records. Tliis chart indicates that he had shipped from the factory during the Fall months from September to
December, inclusive, seventy-two per cent of his entire year's orders, scattering the remaining twenty-eight per cent
between the .six months from April to August and taking no shipments at all during the first two months of the
year. The broken line shows a general readjustment of the shipping schedule, providing for some shipments each month,
the peak month, November, taking twenty-one per cent of the year's quota, and the smallest month, August, two and
two-tenths per cent of the quota, as against an eight and one-third per cent average. The unbroken, horizontal line repre-
sents a theoretical unvarying production of eight and one-third per cent each month
in any sense confined to the large dealers, for
a number of smaller retailers have been follow-
ing this policy.. They have come to a reali-
zation that although they may only need three
or four pianos during September or October,
for instance, as compared with the larger deal-
er's twenty or thirty, their orders must take
the regular course in the factory and the delays
that ensue while orders orecedine: theirs are
wareroom stock without holding any idea that
that stock will move with more than ordinary
rapidity.
It is quite possible for the retailer, under
these conditions, to provide that, instead of
the bulk of his deliveries being made in Febru-
ary or March, they be made so as to meet his
tion and delivery schedules, but it is likewise
possible to draft such schedules as will prove
practical and logical in those years when pro-
duction catches up with demand. It happens,
as a rule, that the majority of warerooms are
fairly well cleared of stock on January first
as a result of the holiday demand, and it has
been the practice of many dealers to place
liberal orders with a view to filling out their
average requirements, possibly over a period
of five months, and then place his subsequent
orders for later delivery on the monthly plan.
Any fixed and regular delivery schedule is
naturally based upon the minimum requirements
of the business and affords assurance that the
retailer will have on hand, or on regular ship-
ping order, sufficient instruments to meet his
requirements from September first to January
first, when retailers look for their natural har-
vest. With these definite deliveries scheduled
and provided for, it is a simple matter to ar-
range in an emergency for additional instru-
ments to take care of a special and unexpected
rush. Where the manufacturer has no working
basis at all, he cannot be expected to meet all
the retailer's demand in one fell swoop.
What the Actual Records Show
With a view to ascertaining just how the
practice of averaging shipments has been, and
is, working out, The Review has taken occasion
to make a survey of the situation as it applies
to certain definite manufacturers,- and the re-
sults of that survey are presented graphically
herewith through a series of charts that explain
better than words just what the manufacturer
is up against when the demand for pianos is
intermittent and how the problem proves itself
out when the shipping orders are divided
through the twelve months with more or less
regularity.
There are those who declare that the prac-
tice of averaging shipments can be maintained
only while there exists a seller's market and
that a season of poor retail business would im-
mediately result in cancellations calculated to
destroy any good that might be expected to
develop from the plan.
If the manufacturers will, and practically all
of them do, play fair in the matter and allocate
their dealers' requirements throughout the year
in strict conformity to their normal production
basis rather than forcing orders for the simple
satisfaction of building up big sales totals and
with the expectation of leaving a certain pro-
(Continued on page 15)
MARCH 17,
11
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1923
Spreading Orders Through the Year
The Relation Between Dealers' Orders and Factory Production and Shipments Showing the Burden Thrown
on the Piano Industry Through Concentrating Instead of Averaging Shipments—Graphic Charts
Based on Actual Figures Show Fallacy of Present Ordering Methods
It is now generally recognized in .the trade
that the solution of the problem of keeping the
piano manufacturing business on a sound eco-
nomic basis depends primarily upon the will-
ingness of the retail merchant to place his stock
orders well in advance, arrange for shipments
divided as equally as possible among the twelve
months of the year, rather than having them
concentrated in four or five months, and co-
operate with the manufacturer to the extent of
being willing to store excess stock during more
or less dull periods in order to insure having
it at hand when the busy season arrives.
There have been reported in detail in The
Review the plans of several manufacturers for
keeping their plants running throughout the
year on a regular and steady basis by insisting
upon advance orders from dealers and dividing
shipments into monthly quotas as evenly as
possible. There have been told, too, the stories
of manufacturers who have taken most of
the burden on their own shoulders and made up
surplus stock in dull seasons, as in late Spring
and Summer, for taking care of in part the
surplus orders received during the Fall and holi-
day season without necessitating overtime work
during those periods as compared with half-
time employment during off-months.
More Dealers Averaging Deliveries
The facts of the situation as presented by
manufacturers who have really gone into the
matter thoroughly are distinctly interesting, for
they show that an increasing number of re-
tailers are showing an inclination of their own
free will to "average" their monthly orders
during the year for their own production as
much as to aid the manufacturers. It is signifi-
cant that the majority of the larger dealers are
now, and have been for some years, placing
advance orders and having monthly deliveries
made more or less regularly throughout the
year as a means of protection should any sud-
den impetus in sales make itself evident.
This averaging of orders and deliveries is not
filled may mean the loss of several sales and
put a check on that very important matter of
frequent turnover which is the salvation of the
retailer of limited capital.
It is asserted, and with reason, that the trade
situation during the first two or three months
of the current year cannot be taken as a fair
JflN FEE MBR, APR MHY JUNE; JULY, flUG v SEPT t OCT, NOV, P£C V
i\
24
Z0%
\
JQ
12.
CHART 1
This chart tends to show the successful efforts of a small dealer to average his orders to a certain extent through the
twelve months. The heavy line indicates how he formerly placed his orders, so that sixty-six per cent of the year's
deliveries fell in three months and the balance, of thirty-four per cent, in five months, with no deliveries at all during
April and the Summer months of June, July and August. The broken line shows that lie later ordered less heavily,
although close to his average quota, during the first three months of the year and during the three Summer months,
when the factory was not so busy, received thirty-four per cent of his shipments, getting another twenty-four per
cent in September in time for the opening of the Fall business. In this case the dealer's deliveries were so arranged
as to offset poor ordering on the part of other merchants. The unbroken, horizontal line represents a theoretical unvarying
production of eight and one-third per cent a month
example of normal conditions as they have
prevailed during other years and may be ex-
pected to prevail in the future. Thus far this
year the problem with most factories has been
that of taking care of the volume of orders on
hand and coming in with some degree of
promptitude rather than of looking for busi-
ness to keep the plants going.
Drafting Schedules for the Future
With this condition existing it is of course
quite easy to plan more or less fixed produc-
M . FE6. MflR. flPR. fflff, JUNfr JUL^ flUC, SEPT, OCT V HQ\ PEC
21,
Z
18
13
85
^
o
CHART 2
This chart illustrates accurately just how a large dealer managed without burden to himself to readjust his orders and
deliveries in a way to bring relief to the manufacturer. The heavy line shows his former method of ordering taken from
actual records. Tliis chart indicates that he had shipped from the factory during the Fall months from September to
December, inclusive, seventy-two per cent of his entire year's orders, scattering the remaining twenty-eight per cent
between the .six months from April to August and taking no shipments at all during the first two months of the
year. The broken line shows a general readjustment of the shipping schedule, providing for some shipments each month,
the peak month, November, taking twenty-one per cent of the year's quota, and the smallest month, August, two and
two-tenths per cent of the quota, as against an eight and one-third per cent average. The unbroken, horizontal line repre-
sents a theoretical unvarying production of eight and one-third per cent each month
in any sense confined to the large dealers, for
a number of smaller retailers have been follow-
ing this policy.. They have come to a reali-
zation that although they may only need three
or four pianos during September or October,
for instance, as compared with the larger deal-
er's twenty or thirty, their orders must take
the regular course in the factory and the delays
that ensue while orders orecedine: theirs are
wareroom stock without holding any idea that
that stock will move with more than ordinary
rapidity.
It is quite possible for the retailer, under
these conditions, to provide that, instead of
the bulk of his deliveries being made in Febru-
ary or March, they be made so as to meet his
tion and delivery schedules, but it is likewise
possible to draft such schedules as will prove
practical and logical in those years when pro-
duction catches up with demand. It happens,
as a rule, that the majority of warerooms are
fairly well cleared of stock on January first
as a result of the holiday demand, and it has
been the practice of many dealers to place
liberal orders with a view to filling out their
average requirements, possibly over a period
of five months, and then place his subsequent
orders for later delivery on the monthly plan.
Any fixed and regular delivery schedule is
naturally based upon the minimum requirements
of the business and affords assurance that the
retailer will have on hand, or on regular ship-
ping order, sufficient instruments to meet his
requirements from September first to January
first, when retailers look for their natural har-
vest. With these definite deliveries scheduled
and provided for, it is a simple matter to ar-
range in an emergency for additional instru-
ments to take care of a special and unexpected
rush. Where the manufacturer has no working
basis at all, he cannot be expected to meet all
the retailer's demand in one fell swoop.
What the Actual Records Show
With a view to ascertaining just how the
practice of averaging shipments has been, and
is, working out, The Review has taken occasion
to make a survey of the situation as it applies
to certain definite manufacturers,- and the re-
sults of that survey are presented graphically
herewith through a series of charts that explain
better than words just what the manufacturer
is up against when the demand for pianos is
intermittent and how the problem proves itself
out when the shipping orders are divided
through the twelve months with more or less
regularity.
There are those who declare that the prac-
tice of averaging shipments can be maintained
only while there exists a seller's market and
that a season of poor retail business would im-
mediately result in cancellations calculated to
destroy any good that might be expected to
develop from the plan.
If the manufacturers will, and practically all
of them do, play fair in the matter and allocate
their dealers' requirements throughout the year
in strict conformity to their normal production
basis rather than forcing orders for the simple
satisfaction of building up big sales totals and
with the expectation of leaving a certain pro-
(Continued on page 15)
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