The Idea
It would be very useful to show Quantity Restricted (Quantity ordered out/Outbound Quantity/Quantity on Hold) as a column in the inventory tab.
Another Column, Quantity Available, would show the quantity left after adjusting for the orders.
Unfulfilled/Partially fulfilled sales orders with inventory items deserve a place in the inventory tab/Reports. Reservations or restrictions would be created with sales orders so that the Quantity available column shows the reduced quantity. The data is already in Manager, it just has to be represented in the inventory tab.
A drill-down of figures in the Quantity Restricted (Total of the orders on that inventory item by customers) column ought to show a customer-wise distribution.
E.g.
Quantity Restricted for Inventory X
Customer A 100
Customer B 14
Making a total of 114 Restricted Quantity.
When Orders are fulfilled, the Quantity restricted should be automatically updated. It is not to do any calculation on the quantity owned or anything but just to tell the user that there is a commitment to be honoured.
The concept could be advanced to include purchase orders with inventory items in a column called inbound orders. The quantity in the inbound orders will affect the inventory available. I know many people would rather wait and receive an inventory or at least be billed for inventory before they consider adjusting their inventory available. So, the Simple mode would be okay for such users.
The Maths
In Simple Mode: Quantity Available = Quantity owned – Restricted Quantity/Outbound Quantity.
In the advanced mode: Quantity Available = Quantity Owned + Inbound Orders – Restricted Quantity/Outbound Quantity
How this could help
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To ensure there is enough quantity available at all time satisfy orders/delivery obligations. If Restricted Quantity item is higher than quantity owned, quantity available will be negative and inventory must be brought in to ensure there is a level that can serve pending sales orders.
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To know when to produce or order/procure new inventory. That is, keep an eye on the real inventory that would be available after current orders have been fulfilled.
Users could then look at the quantity available and conduct deliveries or even accept or reject customer orders. -
We can use this information to plan the delivery of inventory when there is a need to prioritise delivery (e.g. to loyal customers). We could study the inbound and outbound inventory and their planned arrival dates to agree on delivery dates for sales orders with customers.
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Safety stock: Business can use this to put aside inventory as safety stock.
Alternative Way of presenting this to the users
This information could be added as another report to the inventory reports under the Reports tab.
Problem
Manager currently does not have order fulfilling capability so data on the status of orders is not used for the computation and presentation of any report. The order function is currently serving a document only purpose. If this idea is going to be implemented, order fulfilment status would need to be introduced first and this is going to allow for the smooth adjustment of Quantity Available.