Fans of Blackadder will be all too familiar with this phrase that frequently popped out of the mouth of Baldrick. Most of Baldrick’s “cunning plans” ended up in disaster, but I am hoping for better things with my latest cunning plan to get Jump modems flowing again.
Last week was a milestone (I hope) in freeing-up the Jump modem supply chain. Orders were placed on CEVA for 396 modems and 204 of these had been shipped by Friday. But while these volumes still fall well short of our targets, we are trying a new approach (“cunning plan”) to keep more partners supplied.
29 partners have either already received a shipment from last week’s batch or will do early next week. This contrasts with an average of only 9 partners receiving shipments each week for the rest of May.
So what is our cunning new plan? Put simply, this involves limiting individual partner shipment quantities to no more than 12 (previously 30). So all last week’s shipments were for 6 or 12 modems, 6 for partners with low turnover and 12 for those with high turnover.
At month end (yesterday), partners were holding 1613 modems in stock; a few are well stocked having recently received a new supply of 30, while over 200 partners have 2 or fewer modems. So the new ‘cunning’ plan is to get modems flowing to more partners.
Those with very high turnovers will not miss out; it just means supplies will arrive more frequently in smaller quantities. Some partners might even think this is a better idea, avoiding the need to find storage space when five boxes of modems arrive at the same time!
So let’s hope this ‘cunning plan’ does not end up like Baldrick’s ones. If it does, I have no fear that you will let me know!
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 