Action for Happiness

[Penners]

I think the key to Mrs P's success with the Kit Kat availability Key Point Indicator will be her demand planning ability. She clearly has many and varying factors to consider - there will be some historical seasonality but unexpected demand spikes due to domestic woes such as dishwashers breaking down could happen at any time, therefore setting the correct kitchen-level buffer stocks to ensure acceptable on-shelf availability is clearly key. Just In Time is not thought to be an appropriate model to use - the inconvenience of having to satisfy out of business hours demand with this model is too high.

However, note that she may choose to deliberately restrict availability if she recognises that certain areas of Penners plc are expanding in an unplanned, circumferential fashion.

A well-thought-through analysis, Feltwell - as far as it goes. But may I point out that Mrs P is not considered to be sufficiently well qualified to control the purchase or storage planning of Kit-Kats. Therefore I am obliged to carry out this demanding role myself. Thanks to my extensive experience and many years of trial and error, I have developed my own strategy and written my own brief, as follows:

* Buy lots.

* If lots looks like dwindling to several, buy lots more.

It's a model that has served me well, and I commend it to S&OPs everywhere.

 

[LadyArowana]

Isn't it just a fancy way of making sure that there are always plenty of the right sort of kit kats in the right place at the right time and at the right temperature?

'Scuse me, Yer Ladyship... there's only one type of proper Kit-Kat. It's the original four-finger, milk chocolate job. All these fancy orange ones, chunky ones and so on are just jumped up imposters that bring no added inspiration whatsoever to the assessment process.

I can understand your view on that, but encouraging diversity is a big thing with employers these days. I think Mr F would need to show how he would encourage a non threatening work environment for minority Kit Kat eaters.

 

[Flyfisher]

Perhaps it will make you happy to learn that the 80-90% figure is far removed from the truth. Since the spike of the second world war UK total tax take has been around 40% of GDP, and much of that is not personal taxation.

Well, that's averages for you - we all have 2.4 children as well. :wink:
But it's quite clear that "income tax" is the merest tip of the tax iceberg.

 

[CatherineB]

'Scuse me, Yer Ladyship... there's only one type of proper Kit-Kat. It's the original four-finger, milk chocolate job. All these fancy orange ones, chunky ones and so on are just jumped up imposters that bring no added inspiration whatsoever to the assessment process.

'Scuse me Mr P, but I remember the day when the Kit-Kat had FIVE fingers, not four, so would hardly consider the four-finger Kit-Kat to be either original or proper.

Perhaps we should add 20% Kit-Kat tax to the list above. Again clearly distributed unfairly, as it impacts larger consumers more than smaller (and that is not a reference to anyone's waistline :wink: )

 

[Penners]

'Scuse me Mr P, but I remember the day when the Kit-Kat had FIVE fingers, not four

Yes, Catherine, and the summers were always endlessly hot, children never cried, beer was a 6d a pint and hoodies didn't exist. :wink:

Actually there was a limited edition 5-finger Kit-Kat in the 1990s. http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/articles.aspx?page=articles&ID=43874

If such a thing existed prior to that, it's been wiped from my increasingly overloaded and corroded memory banks.

 

[robgil]

I said to my mum the other day ''Kit Kat chunky''? and she slapped me. :shock:

 

[Juju]

Well, I like the regular Kit-Kat but I do like the crunchy one but my favourite is the white chocolate one - does that still exist? My Mum worked in a cash-and-carry in the 1970s and there was nothing more exciting than when she brought back large boxes of kit-Kats and Breakaways. I was a fussy eater as a child and every day my school lunch box (which had a picture of a Kit-Kat on it!) consisted of a white bread Dairylea sandwich and a Kit-Kat.
Juju

 

[CatherineB]

'Scuse me Mr P, but I remember the day when the Kit-Kat had FIVE fingers, not four

Yes, Catherine, and the summers were always endlessly hot, children never cried, beer was a 6d a pint and hoodies didn't exist. :wink:

Actually there was a limited edition 5-finger Kit-Kat in the 1990s. http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/articles.aspx?page=articles&ID=43874

If such a thing existed prior to that, it's been wiped from my increasingly overloaded and corroded memory banks.

I stand corrected! I do vividly remember the Kit-Kat machine at my boarding school, which had to be adapted once Kit-Kats shrank, so maybe they just got smaller rather than having fewer fingers, or maybe I'm wrong about that too, and my teenage memory banks were already being corroded. Which could mean that we didn't really prance around in legwarmers and horizontally striped tights, or think Falco was the coolest thing since James Dean, either... :mrgreen:

 

[Penners]

Take comfort in your youth, Catherine. I have absolutely no idea who or what a Falco is.

 

[Flyfisher]

Perhaps we should add 20% Kit-Kat tax to the list above.

Too late - standard-rate VAT is already payable on confectionery. Since the VAT increase to 20% you may have noticed your favourite choccy bars shrinking in size as manufacturers try to maintain retail proces and profits.

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food-drink/confectionery-companies-downsizing-beat-vat-rise-article-huib.html

 

[robgil]

£1 for a toblerone? :shock:

 

[Feltwell]

Take comfort in your youth, Catherine. I have absolutely no idea who or what a Falco is.

Penners, you mean you're not that well up on Austrian rappers from the 1980's? I'm shocked. He had a hit with "Rock me Amadeus", however it wasn't quite as big a hit as the bus that killed him a few years later, if memory serves me correctly. Sorry, that is in bad taste!

 

[Penners]

it wasn't quite as big a hit as the bus that killed him a few years later

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That's disgraceful, Feltwell!

 

[Feltwell]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That's disgraceful, Feltwell!

I like to think I have standards to live down to. 8)

 

[Penners]

Well, at least you're in excellent company. :wink: