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Ingredients availability
Ingredients availability

Understand ingredient availability for orders to manage production and inventory.

Dayvid Lorbiecke avatar
Written by Dayvid Lorbiecke
Updated over 6 months ago

Katana calculates ingredient availability dynamically to help manage production and inventory efficiently. This guide explains how ingredients are tracked against sales, manufacturing, and outsourced purchase orders based on priority and stock levels.

Ingredients availability shows the stock status for ingredients required to make products on an order. Ingredient requirements for products are based on the Product recipe / BOM, which can include both materials and subassemblies.

Ingredients availability status can either show In stock, Expected, Not available, or No recipe. Based on the status, you should understand which actions to take next.

Ingredients availability is automatically calculated based on stock position and priority of orders and cannot be manually adjusted.

Ingredients availability areas

  • Products on a sales order (in the Sell screen or on a Sales order card). This is especially relevant for businesses that are Make-to-Order as it provides immediate information about ingredient availability for making ordered products.

  • Products on a manufacturing order (in the Schedule tab or on a Manufacturing Order card). Provides information about the ingredient availability for making products in the production schedule.

  • Products on an Outsourced purchase order. Provides information about the ingredient availability at the contractor's location for making the ordered products.

The Sell, Make and Buy screens that list Sales, Manufacturing, and Outsourced purchase orders display Ingredients availability at the order level. The status will show Not available or Expected when at least one ingredient for a product on the order has a similar status. Expected is only shown if no ingredients have a Not available status for the order. Click on any order to see more detailed information.

How availability is calculated

The Ingredients availability status indicates whether ingredients are available for products on a specific sales order (SO), manufacturing order (MO) or outsourced purchase order (OPO). Ingredients availability status takes into account the order priority, which can be changed for SOs and MOs by moving the positions of orders in either the Sell screen or Schedule tab. To change the priority of the OPOs change the Expected arrival date.

If you have the required ingredients in stock, the Ingredients availability for an order may still show Not available if another higher priority order has already reserved the same ingredient. Changing the order priority can also affect the Ingredients availability statuses.

The calculation

To determine the status of an ingredient, Katana will First check whether there is enough In stock of the ingredient. If not, Katana will look for any open purchase orders containing the materials, manufacturing orders, or outsourced purchase orders for subassemblies (i.e. the ingredient is in an Expected status). If not, Ingredients availability shows Not available.

In Katana, you can report the actual quantity of products made or ingredients used in production. The Ingredients availability is calculated based on the planned quantity. Only when an order is completed are the stock movements recorded based on actual quantities. Before completion, stock calculations are done based on planned quantities.

Materials aren't permanently linked to any orders. Ingredients availability is always calculated based on the priority of order.

Note: This approach is different from the link between a SO and Make-to-Order MO (Types of manufacturing orders). Sales items availability for a SO only works in a similar way to Ingredients availability for a Make-to-Stock MO (i.e. booking products is based on priority). Read more about a typical Make-to-Stock flow.

Availability status for specific ingredients

Click on a MO to see the product's list of ingredients based on the Product recipe / BOM. Ingredients availability is displayed for each ingredient.

Highlighting the ingredients availability on a manufacturing order

On a SO card, Ingredients availability displays the ingredient status for the product on the order line - it doesn't display availability at the ingredient level. If any ingredients required to make the product are Not available or Expected, you can click on the Ingredients availability status on a SO card to open a list of missing or expected ingredients.

Shows the popup for missing or expected ingredients on a sales order

On an OPO card you can see Ingredient availability both for the product (Purchase items tab) and on ingredient level (Track ingredients tab).

Highlights the Purchase items tab and Track ingredients tab on an outsourced purchase order

Clicking the "i icon" next to the quantity will open more detailed information about the stock status of the ingredient.

For missing ingredients, click on + Buy to create a new purchase order (PO) for the required items (or + Make for required subassemblies).

For expected ingredients, click on the related PO number in the Expected from column to navigate to the order.

Detailed Inventory Intel

Clicking the "i icon" in the missing materials list or on the Ingredients availability status for a specific ingredient on a MO or an OPO opens the Inventory Intel window, which shows additional info about the inventory level of a specific ingredient.

You can check the In stock, Expected, and Committed quantities of the ingredient and see all the orders to which the material is committed. In this window, orders are listed by priority, and the current order is highlighted in bold. The priority can be changed either in the Sell screen, Schedule tab, or by changing OPO Expected arrival date.

GIF showing the Inventory Intel window

Ingredient availability statuses

-- "Not available" --

This means there aren't enough materials or subassemblies available in the inventory to make a required product and that you aren't expecting the materials from a supplier (i.e. you have not created a PO for the material in the required amount for this product). It also means you're not expecting subassemblies from manufacturing or a contractor (i.e. there is no MO or OPO for the subassembly in the required amount for this product).

Recommended option 1: Create a PO for material, or an MO / OPO for a subassembly. If you want to keep enough ingredients in stock to satisfy requirements in the future, we recommend adjusting the safety stock level for this ingredient.

Recommended option 2: If you need to complete this order quickly, but the order has a low priority, you can try bringing it to a higher position to give it a higher priority for booking ingredients in stock or expected from suppliers (or subassemblies expected from manufacturing or contractor).

-- "Expected" --

You'll see this status when there aren't enough ingredients available in inventory for the order, but you have an open PO for the material, an open MO or OPO for the subassembly in the required amount, and the ingredient is expected to arrive.

The date below the Expected status indicates the arrival date of a connected (O)PO for materials and sub-assemblies and the Production Deadline of a related MO for subassemblies.

Recommended option 1: No action is required, but if you want to keep enough ingredients in stock to satisfy the requirements in the future, you could adjust your Reorder Point for this ingredient.

Recommended option 2: If you need to fulfill the order quickly, but the order has a low priority, you can try giving it a higher priority for reserving ingredients in stock or expected from suppliers (or subassemblies expected from manufacturing or contractor).

-- "In stock" --

This status means you have enough materials and subassemblies available in inventory for this order.

Recommended action: No action is required, proceed with production.

-- "Processed" --

This status is used on the Sell screen. When the Sales items availability is In stock, the Ingredients are shown as Processed. This status is also used when MO or OPO is done.

-- "Not applicable" --

This Ingredients availability status only appears on a SO and OPO, not a MO.

You'll see Not applicable on a SO if:

  • You added more than one Location to your account, selected a Ship from location with no Make possibilities (i.e. it's a sales location, not a production site) and no OPO is providing products for that location. You can change the location functions from Settings screen β†’ Locations.

  • You disabled the I make this product option for the product on the product card. In this case, you have chosen to purchase the product from suppliers (not make it) and the Ingredients availability status is not relevant.

You'll see Not applicable on an OPO if:

  • You added a material to OPO, and the Ingredients availability status is not relevant.

  • You added only "I buy this" product to OPO. In this case, you have chosen not to track ingredients and the Ingredients availability status is not relevant.

Further details on how ingredients availability is calculated

If you wish to understand exactly how Katana calculates Ingredients availability, here are the calculations:

  • Not available:
    ​Quantity required by the product on the order > (In stock + Expected - Committed in the inventory), where Committed only includes the quantity committed to higher priority orders.

  • Expected:
    [Quantity required by the product on the order < (In stock + Expected - Committed in the inventory)] AND ["Quantity" required by the product on the order > (In stock - Committed in the inventory)], where Committed only includes the quantity committed to higher priority orders.

  • In stock:
    ​Quantity required by the product on the order < (In stock - Committed in the inventory), where Committed only includes the quantity committed to higher priority orders.

Note: Quantities used in availability calculations are always the planned quantities of products and ingredients on an open MO, not the actual quantities. Stock movements when completing an MO will be based on actual quantities, but stock bookings before MO completion are based on the planned quantities.


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