Asset Allocation with Asset Optimization Strategy

This article explains how assets are assigned to purchases when using the Asset Optimization strategy. Consider the following setup:

In the above table there are a total of 12 seats remaining, 0 seats taken. A customer will see 0 to 6 seats available for purchase. John Smith buys 2 seats. The system will look to see which assets have at least 2 seats available, then look to see which asset as the minimum number of seats available. In this case both Boat A and Boat B have 6 seats available so it will assign Boat A to the Smith purchase.

Now Nancy Jones comes along to purchase. She will continue to see 0 to 6 seats available for purchase as Boat B has not had any seats taken on it yet. Let's assume she purchases 3 seats. The system will look and both assets have at least 3 seats available so both are still options, but Boat A has fewer seats remaining at 4, so the system assigns this purchase of 3 seats to Boat A.

Bob Cook comes along to purchase 2 seats. There are still a maximum of 6 seats available for Bob to purchase because Boat B has not had any seats assigned to it. Bob selects 2 seats and buys. In this case the system removes Boat A as an option because there are not enough seats to satisfy the purchase and parties are not split when using Asset Optimization. So the Cook purchase is assigned Boat B.

Both available assets now have at least some seats taken on them. There's 1 seat available on Boat A and 4 seats available on Boat B. Now Sam Johnson comes along looking to purchase 3 seats. He is presented 0 to 4 seats available as that's the most he can purchase given the previous purchases on these assets. He goes to buy his 3 seats.

Because the system is looking to always maximize asset utilization with this optimization strategy it will consider all purchases every time a purchase is made or a transaction is edited. So given the current situation the system will determine the optimal asset allocation going forward:

The Johnson and Jones parties are both parties of 3, so these are now assigned to Boat A which maximizes the use of Boat A. The Smith and Cook parties of 2 are assigned to Boat B. This sells out Boat A and leaves 2 seats available for purchase on Boat B.

Since the system optimizes which assets are assigned every time a purchase is made it helps you to be able to sell more seats. Had this optimization not occurred you'd be stuck with 1 seat on Boat A and 1 seat on Boat B remaining which may be hard to sell.