Supply Planner Features & Definitions

Overview

Supply Planner plans and forecasts future supply needs, balancing demand and customer orders against safety stock levels while respecting internal production and supplier constraints.

The planning logic combines two directions. Top-down planning generates suggested orders from unconstrained demand. Bottom-up planning evaluates the actual availability of intermediates and materials across the BOM.

Inventory positions, demand, and supply movements are calculated across the planning horizon. Exceptions are flagged when inventory becomes insufficient or backorders remain unresolved.

The module is organised by SKU and location in a time-phased grid — the same SKU can have different inventory, safety stock, and order suggestions per location.

Order suggestions

Supply Planner generates order suggestions to resolve demand–supply gaps and maintain safety stock.

The main grid displays the total suggested quantity per item. In the Plan View dropdown, choose Orders to display suggestions on the order date, or Delivery to display them on the delivery date.

Planners can generate suggestions for all visible lines through a top-level action, or target specific items via right-click.

Suggestions are calculated from:

• Demand (Sales and Consumption)
• Review Period (currently only 1 month is supported)
• Safety Stock Policy
• Ordering Policy
• Supplier lead times
• Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
• Incremental Order Quantity (IOQ)
• BOM structure and component quantity requirements

Converting a suggestion to a firm order

1. Open the Supply Orders view.
2. Locate the order with Status = Suggested.
3. (Optional) Double-click the Status field and change it to Approved — use this if your organisation reviews orders in PLAIO before firming.
4. Right-click and select Convert to Firm Order.

Demand types

Supply Planner propagates the forecast from the Demand Planner through the layers of the BOM. The forecast type used is set in the Forecast Type dropdown.

In the Supply Overview Grid, demand splits into two:

• Sales Demand — items sold directly, typically finished goods. Originates from forecast inputs and drives replenishment for those items.
• Consumption Demand — generated for components when parent items are planned for order or production. Represents the full component quantity required to fulfil the parent’s planned supply, based on the BOM.

If an item is both sold directly and sourceable, it carries both. Sales Demand is fulfilled first.

Instant feasibility check

Supply Planner continuously recalculates feasible orders and inventory levels from the current state of all orders in the grid.

If a planner overrides an order suggestion, inventory reflects the change and the item’s chart gives visual feedback. If any new order is unfulfillable — not possible to fulfil within the planning horizon because of a component shortage — the bar appears red. Unfulfillable firm orders and suggestions are both visible on the Supply Overview Grid.

The planner can then generate suggestions at lower BOM levels to fulfil the new derived demand and clear the exception, or accept the issue and solve it outside PLAIO — for example by requesting a rush order from a CMO and updating the firm order delivery date.

Supply Overview chart

The chart visualises the time-phased supply position of the selected item:

• Net Inventory (Closing) is the primary area series — green when positive, red when negative.
• Deliveries (inflow) appear as columns from planned and firm orders.
• Usage (outflow) appears as columns for Sales and Consumption demand.
• Safety Stock is a red dashed reference line.
• Unfulfillable Orders appear as red bars.

The Supply Overview Grid reflects the same numbers. See Supply Overview Grid.

Inventory simulation

Inventory Simulation projects inventory across the planning horizon from demand, deliveries, backorders, and supply constraints.

Inventory is shown two ways. Physical Inventory is the on-hand quantity after all transactions in a period. Net Inventory is Physical Inventory adjusted for outstanding backorders, and may go negative if backorder debt exceeds available stock.

Only fulfillable orders contribute to projected inventory. If component shortages prevent fulfilment, the projection does not assume ideal supply — it reflects the constrained outcome.

Sellable Until dates

Each inventory batch is available for sale until its Sellable Until Date. After that date the batch becomes unsellable and leaves available inventory. Expiry Date and Minimum Remaining Shelf-Life are defined in the Item master data.

A Sellable Until Date Override lets a batch stay sellable for longer or shorter than its calculated default — useful when inventory is allocated to markets with different shelf-life acceptance rules.

See Inventory & Shelf Life.

Backorders

Backorders are created when demand cannot be fulfilled from available inventory. There are two types:

• Sales Backorders — unmet Sales Demand for items sold directly.
• Consumption Backorders — unmet Consumption Demand caused by component shortages delaying parent production.

Backorders are maintained as cumulative balances across periods. When inventory becomes available, existing backorders are fulfilled before new demand is consumed.

Backorder activity is reflected in the Supply Overview Grid, including newly created backorders and the fulfilment of prior ones. If balances remain unresolved at the end of the planning horizon, the item is flagged with a red exception. See Backorders.

Exceptions

Exceptions are evaluated continuously as the supply plan is edited. The grid distinguishes two severity levels, shown at both period level and row level.

Yellow (warning) — unfulfillable demand exists in this period, but the simulation resolves all backorders before the end of the planning horizon. The plan catches up: components arrive late, but nothing is permanently lost. Be aware; you may not need to act.

Red (danger) — unfulfillable demand exists and backorder debt remains unresolved at the end of the horizon. The plan does not recover. This needs action: adjust orders, find alternative suppliers, or escalate.

Exception detail is also visible in the sub-grid for any item. See Supply Planning Alerts.

Allocations and consumption

The grid includes two allocation tabs: Allocated To and Consumed From.

Allocated To shows where an item’s inventory is used. Consumed From shows the source of components required to fulfil planned supply. Both present the same allocation data from different perspectives, structured across three levels:

1. A date level aggregating all allocations on a given date
2. An allocation level representing each parent–component relationship
3. A batch level showing the specific inventory batches used and allocated quantities

If a shortage occurs on a date, the corresponding date row is highlighted.

Each allocation record includes traceability fields:

• Priority — the defined priority order in which items compete for limited component inventory.
• Allocation Type — Normal (fulfilled on the originally scheduled date) or Backorder Recovery (fulfilled later after a prior shortage).
• Supply Type — Production (same location) or Transfer (inter-location movement).
• Status — Fulfilled or Unfulfilled.

See Allocations.

Definitions

Term	Definition
Allocation Type	Whether an allocation was fulfilled on the originally scheduled date (Normal) or later after a prior shortage (Backorder Recovery)
Backorder Created	A backorder generated when demand cannot be fulfilled in the current period
Backorder Fulfillment	The fulfilment of previously created backorders once inventory becomes available
Backorder Balance	Total outstanding backorders at a given period
Consumption Backorders	Cumulative unmet component demand from insufficient inventory to support parent production
Consumption Demand	Component demand generated when parent items are planned for production, based on the BOM
COGS Firm Orders	COGS for Firm Orders
COGS Order Suggestions	COGS for Order Suggestions
COGS Orders	Aggregate COGS of Order Suggestions and Firm Orders
COGS Unsellable	COGS for inventory that becomes unsellable
Deliveries	Aggregated delivery quantities from Order Suggestions and Firm Orders; dates determined by supplier lead times
Firm Deliveries	The portion of Deliveries coming from Firm Orders
Firm Orders	Confirmed supply orders uploaded or created to represent committed incoming inventory
Inventory Below Safety Stock	Inventory has fallen below Safety Stock; the level and target are displayed
Late Delivery	A delivery fulfilled after its originally scheduled date due to component shortages or prior infeasibility
Late Usage	Demand fulfilled after its originally scheduled date due to a prior shortage
Months of Inventory	Projected inventory coverage based on the rolling average demand of the next X months
Net Inventory	Physical Inventory adjusted for outstanding backorders; may be negative
Order Suggestions	System-generated supply quantities calculated to meet demand and maintain Safety Stock
Physical Inventory	On-hand stock quantity after all transactions within a period
Safety Stock	The calculated safety stock quantity for the given date
Sales Backorders	Cumulative unmet Sales Demand carried forward across periods
Sales Demand	Demand for items sold directly
Shortage	Insufficient component availability preventing fulfilment of Consumption Demand
Total Demand	Sales Demand + Consumption Demand for an item in a period
Total Orders	Aggregate quantity of Order Suggestions and Firm Orders
Unfulfillable Demand	Demand that cannot be fulfilled in the current period due to insufficient inventory or component availability
Unfulfillable Orders	Orders that cannot be fulfilled
Unsellable Inventory	Inventory no longer available for sale due to expiry or Sellable Until restrictions