After generating a production order like described in further detail in the “Instructions -Generate Production Orders”, the supply planner might need to manually override the bulk allocation for the purchase order.
The user should proceed to “Production Orders” which is under the Manufacturing module and click on the relevant production order line. To gain better insights on the allocation of the batch for a specific purchase order the user can click on the “Inventory Batch Allocation” subreport.
Figure 1. Selected production order line along with details on the inventory batch allocation
For better user experience it’s good to expand the view of the “Inventory Batch Allocation” subreport by clicking the grid icon in the right corner above the subreport, which displays “Open Report” when hovered over. This allows the user to have a comprehensive view of all inventory batch allocations. For simplicity, filtering by attributes such as purchase order ID can be helpful.
Figure 2. Expanded view of Inventory Batch Allocation subreport with a filter applied on purchase order ID.
“Inventory Batch Allocation” clearly displays which items are available, including their batch numbers, expiry date, available quantity (Qty), and reserved quantities (Reserved Quantity) for a specific item inventory batch. If the reserved quantity surpasses the available quantity, the system will generate a red placeholder line as a warning to the user, indicating that the reservation exceeds the stock available for that particular batch, as illustrated in figure 3.
Figure 3. Red placeholder line - alerts the user that they are trying to reserve more than is available
When additional inventory becomes available later on, for instance after two weeks or a month, it will become visible under the “Available Inventory” subreport.
When longer shelf life is necessary to accommodate an extended inventory hold on the finished product, or for any other reason, the supply planner can override what the system suggested. That is done by selecting a particular item batch line like displayed in figure 4. The user then navigates to the “Available Inventory” subreport where all batches with available inventory are listed, including details such as quantity, location, and minimum expiry days. After determining the suitable batch to switch to, the planner returns to the “Inventory Batch Allocation” grid above, double-clicks on the “Item Inventory Batch” column, and selects the appropriate batch number from the “Available Inventory” subreport. This is displayed in figure 4.
Figure 4. Available Inventory subreport - the user has chosen to switch to batch number B-0023 as displayed in the dropdown menu under the Item Inventory Batch column in the Inventory Batch Allocation grid.
After selecting the batch number the system will update the available quantities for the chosen batch accordingly both in “Inventory Batch Allocation” and in the “Available Inventory” subreport like displayed in figure 5.
Figure 5. Updated information on available quantities after switching to another batch number