Warehouse Replenishment - Inventory Reorder Logic

Inventory replenishment is typically handled using the PO Recommendations report.  This PO Recommendations Report is used to automatically create Purchase Order Requisitions for goods the system thinks are required.  The PO Recommendations report uses the following data from the inventory record for each item to determine the appropriate quantity to recommend.  The information used to calculate this recommended quantity described below.

Vendor – The default vendor that is assigned to the inventory item.  The PO Recommendations report uses the default vendor for the item when it creates requisitions for the item.

Manufacturer – The manufacturer specified for the item in the Inventory Master file.

Inventory Quantity on Hand – The quantity of the item that is currently on hand in the warehouse location being reported on.

Inventory On Order Quantity – The total quantity of open purchase order lines and shop orders for the item in the selected warehouse location.

Inventory Reserved Quantity – The total quantity of the item that is reserved in the selected warehouse location for open and backordered sales orders and open shop orders that are scheduled within the current scheduling window.  The reserved quantity is the quantity of the item that is required in the current scheduling window.

Lead Days/Scheduling Window – The scheduling window is used to determine how far ahead the system attempts to reserve and allocate inventory to a sales or shop order line.  The scheduling window for each item is determined by the number of Lead days entered for the inventory item in the inventory master file.  The scheduling window is used by the system when calculating the reserved quantity for each item.  If an order line is entered for an item in the current scheduling window, the system will reserve inventory for the order line and it will try to allocate inventory to the line.  If the order line is entered outside of the window, the system adds the order quantity to the total reserved quantity for the item, but it does not update the reserved quantity for the item.  The reserved quantity for the item is adjusted as order lines move into the window due to the passage of time, or as the schedule dates in each order are modified.

Inventory Reorder Point – The Inventory Reorder Point is used to determine the minimum stocking level for an item.  If the reorder point is set to 0, the system will only suggest you reorder the item when you have demand (sales order or shop order lines) for the item.  If the reorder point for an item is set above zero, the system will suggest you order a quantity of the item that is high enough to meet current demand and to ensure the on hand quantity of the item remains equal to or higher than the reorder point specified for the item.

Inventory Reorder Quantity – The Inventory Re-Order Quantity defines the minimum quantity of the item that must be ordered from the vendor each time you purchase the item.  The Re-Order Quantity is used when the system is calculating the recommended quantity to purchase for each item.  The system uses the smallest multiple of the reorder quantity for the item when calculating the recommended quantity to order for each item.

Note: The Inventory Reorder Quantity for each item must be set to a minimum value of 1 (this is required in order for the PO Recommendation report to work properly).  If the Reorder quantity for an item is set to 0, the system will not create requisitions for the item as no multiple of 0 will result in a non-zero value.

LeadPoDays – The Lead PO Days field is maintained in each warehouse record.  The Lead PO Days field stores the number of days that it takes the Vendor to ship the item to you after a PO is received by the vendor.  The Lead PO Lead Days field is used to calculate the Estimated Shipment Date for the purchase order line.  The Estimated Ship Date in the PO Line is also used along with the Transit Days specified in the shipment method in each PO to determine the Estimated Arrival Date for the PO Line.  The Lead PO Days can also be used with the Daily Demand Information for the item in order to determine how much stock you must have on hand to be able to fill orders during the time it takes to re-order and receive the product.

ReOrderPt – The reorder point, or Minimum Quantity for the item.  The Reorder point defines the lowest quantrty that you want to have on hand for the inventory.item in the selected location.

ReOrderQty – The reorder quantity is the “economic order quantity” for this item.  This is the quantity that you should be ordering the item in, for normal warehouse replenishment and should take into consideration discounts, freight and handling costs.

Max_Qty – This is maximum quantity they you wish to have in the warehouse at any one time.  This field is normally left at zero.  If used it will limit the number quantity ordered to not exceed this amount.  This can cause you to run out of stock.

BoCode – This flag determines if the item can be back ordered.  If set to “N” the system will no longer replenish inventory to stock, but only to fill open orders.

The following data elements are used by the PO Recommendations report when it is calculating the recommended quantity to order for each item, and when creating PO Requisitions.

QVL Records – QVL or Qualified Vendor List records are used to specify vendor specific purchasing information for an item.  QVL records can be used for purchasing in both local and foreign currency (a QVL or a Special Cost record is required in order for the system to automatically calculate a foreign currency PO price), and each QVL record stores some information that if loaded, will override the inventory information for the item when the QVL record is used by the system.  The information in the QVL record that is used by the PO Recommendations report includes,

•      The vendor – the vendor name in the QVL record.  The QVL record will only be used by the report when the vendor name in the record matches the name of the vendor assigned as the default vendor for the item being purchased.

•      The item number – the house item number associated with the record.  The report only checks QVL records with an item equal to that being ordered, and which have a vendor matching the default vendor for the item.

•      The currency – A QVL record is used by the report only when the currency in the QVL record matches the default currency for the vendor for the item (as specified in the Vendor Master file).

•      Lead – The number of lead days in the QVL record will be used to calculate the PO Estimated ship date if a valid QVL record is found for the vendor, item and currency being used by the report.  In this case, the value in the lead days in the QVL record will be used if it is not set to 0.

•      Cost_FC – The cost of the item in the currency specified in the QVL record.  The cost loaded into this field is used by the system during the calc_default _cost procedure, and this QVL cost will be used for the PO Requisition if the currency in the QVL record matches the default currency for the default vendor for the item, and the QVL price is the target (generally the lowest price) available for the item.

Re-Order Logic

The PO Recommendations Report uses the following logic when creating requisition lines.

•      The report first calculates the “needed” quantity for the item.  The needed quantity is determined by adding the current quantity on hand for the item to the current on order quantity for the item, and then subtracting the current reserved quantity for the item.  If the result is less than zero, then the item needs to be ordered, and the negative quantity is multiplied by –1 to determine the needed quantity for the item.

•      The report checks the reorder information (reorder point and reorder quantity) that has been entered for the item in the Inventory Master file, and uses this information to calculate the recommended quantity for the item.  The recommended quantity is the quantity of the item that needs to be ordered to fill current sales and shop orders for the item and to meet the minimum stocking quantity defined for the item (the reorder point). 

•      The report uses the Cost selected by the operator to determine the default PO price for each item.  The Cost options that are available include.

A – Average

L – Last

N – Next

S - Standard

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Warehouse Replenishment - Processing Overview