Besides the view of the Auckland skyline and the iconic Skytower, it is likely you have come to this page searching for the answer to the question: “Does the leftover marketing budget rollover to the next period?”
The short answer? No. It is therefore in your best interest to spend the entirety of your marketing budget (see Budget Spending report under Forecast Results to see how much of your budget you have spent).
Be sure not to overspend on your budget as well. If you do spend more than has been allocated to you then the simulation will cut back on your spending for you which may not be in the manner you would like!
How do you get a larger budget?
Your budget is given to you based on either 50% of your last year’s gross margin (see the Industry Benchmark report under key reports for this figure) or $25 million, whichever is higher (up to a maximum of $50 million).
Alternatively, you can launch a new product which provides your firm with an extra $10 million to fund the launch campaign (but this comes with its own expenses). This funding only lasts for one year.
While there is no ‘one-way’ to win MikesBikes or Music2Go; be sure to check out our tutorial videos and the player’s manual for advice on how to best implement a strategy your team has chosen.
If you have any questions about the simulation feel free to get in touch with us at help@smartsims.com or fill out a contact us form.
The video above will demonstrate how to make a Sales Forecast for an existing product and a new product, as well as the complementary production decisions for both.
Just a note that for our example in calculating the Planned Production units for our existing product, you will see that we have Closing Inventory. However, if you have no units of Closing Inventory, you do no need to subtract any units from your Sales Forecast to calculate your Planned Production.
We have provided you with the script for the video below to read through:
“In MikesBikes Advanced you will be required to enter a Planned Production decision for each of your products. Your Planned Production will be your Sales Forecast minus any existing stock.
Planned Production = Sales Forecast – Existing Stock
How do I conduct a Sales Forecast?
A Sales Forecast is a prediction of the number of units we believe we can sell in the year ahead. This is calculated by predicting our market share for the year ahead; being the percentage of the total market we believe we can secure.
Estimated Market Size Next Year x Percentage Market Share
What is our market share?
So what we need to do first is to identify our current market share through the Market Summary report. We can see that for our RC Rockhopper product, we had a market share of 49.8% of the total unit sales last year.
What is the estimated market size next year?
We then need to find out what the total market size will be for the year ahead. If we look at the Market Information report, we can see the forecast demand for the year ahead is 45,000 units.
Calculating our Sales Forecast
Therefore, in this example our Sales Forecast would be 49.8% of 45,000 units. Being 22,410 units.
Note that if you believe that based on your decisions for the year ahead you can increase your market share from last year, you would adjust this figure.
For this example, we believe our market share will remain constant therefore Sales Forecast will be 22,410 units.
Calculating our Planned Production
Now that we have a Sales Forecast we can calculate our Planned Production.
We can see on the Product Summary report that we have 1,698 units of Closing Inventory.
Therefore, our Planned Production is 22,410 minus 1,698 units. Being 20,712 units.
This is entered this into the Products screen under “Pricing”.
How do I conduct a Sales Forecast for a New Product?
For a new product, the challenge is we do not have any existing sales to calculate a Sales Forecast from.
Therefore, a Sales Forecast for a new product can only be based on the Forecast Total Market Size.
In this example, we are wanting to launch into the Leisure market.
The Market Information report tells us that for the year ahead, the Forecast Demand for the year ahead is 26,000 units.
If we then look at the Market Summary report we can see that there were no competitor products in this market last year. However, given the opportunity an empty market creates, we should assume that at least one other competitor will also launch into this market.
Considering this Single-Player scenario only has one other competitor we can aim to produce 50% of the Leisure market’s total size which is 13,000 units. Click Apply”
If you have any questions, please feel free to click here and fill out a form or email us at help@smartsims.com.
It has been a big year for the Smartsims team! We have updated our logo and are now ecstatic to announce the launch of our new website!
There are many new exciting features that are a part of this! You may have already noticed:
Resources Section
Under the resources menu you will find: Case Studies, Articles, Simulation Resources and Hall of Fame. You will likely be familiar with the Hall of Fame and Articles. However, we are most excited about our new Case Studies page. Here you will find interviews with instructors sharing their experiences using our software; journal articles; and interviews with students.
Featured Case Study:
New Product Imagery and Product Logos
We have great new logos and product imagery for our products. If you’d like to take a look, you can find these new logos on the following pages:
Launch of MikesBikes Accounting
Our most recent addition to our product line, MikesBikes Accounting, is a business simulation designed to support learning objectives of management accounting courses. We have more information on this product here. Feel free to get in touch with our team by filling out a form if you’d like to learn more.
New Responsive Design
This will allow you to easily view our website on any device while maintaining the same experience.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to get in touch with us by filling out the form below.
While the simulation shows you your firm’s current total capacity, you can use this calculations to predict the amount of bikes your firm can produce in upcoming years; work out if you need to reduce or increase your capacity or; question whether there is an imbalance between your factory and workers.
In MikesBikes your factory is most effective when the capacity of your workers is well matched to the capacity of your plant. If your Factory Workforce and your Plant Capacity get out of balance then it is likely they will not be working to their full potential (possibly costing your firm more than is necessary).
This equation allows you to emphasize one form of capacity over another depending on how each approach fits with your strategic plan. For instance, you can employ more workers immediately whereas you have to wait 12 months for new Plant to become available.
Just be aware that if your Factory Workforce Capacity and Plant Capacity favor one over the other too much then you might find this is inefficient. So check your Manufacturing Responsiveness report when deciding whether to employ more workers or to purchase more Plant.
How do I calculate my Total Capacity?
Example 1
Factory Workforce Capacity = 25,000 SCU and Plant Capacity = 25,000 SCU
Total Capacity = sqrt (25,000 * 25,000) = 25,000 SCU
Example 2
Factory Workforce Capacity = 35,000 SCU and Plant Capacity = 15,000 SCU
Total Capacity = sqrt (35,000 * 15,000) = 22,912 SCU
Example 3
Factory Workforce Capacity = 40,000 SCU and Plant Capacity = 10,000 SCU
Total Capacity = sqrt (40,000 * 10,000) = 20,000 SCU
Be sure to note that this total capacity won’t be completely what is available to you. Your factory faces inefficiencies (if you’re using MikesBikes-Advanced then this will be things like breakdowns, reworking, setup, raw materials stockout and training) which will mean you don’t get to use the full 100%. Check out the manufacturing guide for more information on how this will affect your decisions.
