Efficiently managing order priorities to ensure optimal allocation of products and materials across sales, manufacturing, and outsourcing processes. By understanding how priorities influence availability, you can make informed decisions to meet customer demands and streamline operations.
What are order priorities?
In Katana, the priority of orders determines how products and materials are allocated. Higher-priority orders reserve available stock before lower-priority ones. This dynamic affects:
Sales orders (SOs): Managed in the Sell screen.
Manufacturing orders (MOs): Managed in the Make screen's Schedule tab.
Outsourced purchase orders (OPOs): Managed in the Buy screen's Outsourcing tab.
Adjusting priorities helps respond to changes like urgent customer requests or delayed material deliveries.
Linking sales and manufacturing orders
There are two types of MOs in Katana
Make-to-Order (MTO):
Permanently linked to a specific SO.
Changing the priority of the SO automatically updates the linked MO's priority, and vice versa.
Make-to-Stock (MTS):
Not linked to any SO.
Priorities of MTS MOs are managed independently in the Make screen.
How priorities affect sales item availability
The Sales items availability status in the Sell screen indicates whether the required products for an SO are:
In stock
Expected
Not available
For MTO products:
Availability is based on the linked MO, not on stock levels or SO priority.
For MTS products:
Higher-priority SOs reserve available stock first.
A lower-priority SO may show Not available even if stock exists, as it might be reserved for higher-priority orders.
Learn more about Sales items availability.
How priorities affect ingredients availability
The Ingredients availability status indicates whether the materials required for production are:
In stock
Expected
Not available
Key points:
Materials aren't permanently linked to any order; availability is dynamically calculated based on order priorities.
Higher-priority orders reserve materials first, potentially leaving lower-priority orders with insufficient stock.
This applies to SOs, MOs, and OPOs.
Learn more about Ingredients availability.
Managing order priorities
To adjust priorities:
Sales orders: Drag and drop in the Sell screen.
Manufacturing orders: Drag and drop in the Make screen's Schedule tab.
Outsourced purchase orders: Modify the Expected arrival date in the Buy screen's Outsourcing tab.
Changes in priority automatically recalculate product and material allocations across the system.
Combined priority calculations
Katana evaluates all open SOs, MOs, and OPOs within the same location as a single queue to determine material reservations. The general priority hierarchy is:
Stock transfers: Highest priority, based on the earliest Expected dispatch date.
Sales orders: Prioritized by their position in the Sell screen.
Manufacturing orders: Prioritized in the Make screen's Schedule tab.
Outsourced purchase orders: Prioritized by the earliest Expected arrival date.
This system ensures that materials are allocated efficiently, respecting the most urgent operational needs.
Order priority for subassemblies
Orders that require the final product are allocated higher priority than orders with items that can be used in the final product.
Here’s the availability priority calculation order:
Stock transfer rows: prioritized by date
SO rows / MO recipe rows: prioritized by a shared ranking system
PO recipe rows (OPO ingredients): prioritized by date
SO recipe rows (ingredients for unavailable sales items): prioritized by ranking
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