Sales items availability shows you whether the required product(s) for a Sales order (SO) is In stock, Expected, or Not available. Sales items availability is an automatically calculated field in Katana and cannot be manually changed by the user.
You can find the Sales items availability either on the Make screen → Sales orders tab or by opening a specific SO.
Make-to-Order vs. Make-to-Stock
When manufacturing Products in Katana, you can choose to produce either Make-to-Order (MTO) or Make-to-Stock (MTS) Manufacturing orders (how to create a Manufacturing Order). The Sales items availability is calculated differently depending on the approach.
If you create a Manufacturing order (MO) for all the products required by a SO, the Sales items availability status shows Expected. If products are expected from an MTO Manufacturing Order linked to a SO, the Sales Items availability status won't depend on the SO priority.
If you haven't created an MTO Manufacturing Order for a SO, then the Sales items availability is calculated based on the priority of the Sales Orders.
How Sales Order priority affects Sales items availability
The Sales items availability status indicates whether the product is available for a particular SO. If a SO doesn't have a linked MTO Manufacturing order, the Sales items availability status only considers the SO priority level (if a SO does have a linked MO, it won't be affected by priority). Priority can be changed by moving the SO up or down in the Sell screen.
This means that even when you have some of the required product In stock, the Sales items availability might still show Not available on a SO if another SO for the same product has a higher priority. Changing the priority order of Sales Orders can also change the Sales items availability for a SO.
A SO will check to see if there are enough products In stock to complete it. If not, it checks if there are open Manufacturing orders making or open Outsourced purchase orders (OPO) delivering the product.
Inventory Intel
Suppose you open up a SO and click the Sales items status of an item. In that case, it opens an Inventory Intel window that displays additional info about the inventory level of a specific product. You can check the In stock, Expected, and Committed quantities and see the Sales orders connected to the product. In the window, Sales orders are sorted by priority with the current SO in bold. You can adjust priority from the Sell screen.
Since products can also be subassemblies in Katana and used in manufacturing, the same product can be required for a SO and MO at the same time. Both Sales orders and Manufacturing orders take part in the Sales items availability calculation for this type of product and are displayed in the Inventory Intel window.
Sales items availability statuses
-- Not available --
This status means there aren't enough products available in the inventory for that SO and that you aren't expecting the product from manufacturing (i.e. a MO hasn't been created for the required amount of product for this SO) nor outsourcing.
Recommended option 1: Create a new MO by clicking on the + Make button in the Production column in the Sell screen and selecting either Make to Order or Make in Batch. This will add a relevant MO to the Make screen's Schedule tab.
Recommended option 2: If the SO is in a low priority, but you keep some products in stock and need to fulfill this SO quickly, you can try adjusting the SO's place to give it a higher priority for reserving in stock or expected products.
Recommended option 3: Create a new OPO by selecting + Outsourced purchase order in the Global + symbol and adding the required quantity of products to order.
-- Expected --
This status means there aren't enough products available in the inventory to fulfil the SO, but you have an open MO or OPO for the required amount of product.
The date connected to the Expected status indicates the Production Deadline for the connected MO or Expected arrival date of the connected OPO.
Products can be expected from either MTO or MTS Manufacturing orders or Outsourced purchase orders.
Recommended action: No immediate action is required, but we suggest checking for any conflicts between the SO delivery deadline and the Sales item's expected date. If there are conflicts, you could reprioritize your Schedule tab.
-- In stock --
You have enough products available in the inventory to fulfill this SO.
Recommended action: No action is required. Proceed with SO delivery.
-- "Picked" --
Sales items availability will change to Picked if the Delivery status is changed to Packed or Delivered. The In stock and Committed quantities for those products are then decreased in the inventory.