One of the most common questions we get at StockIQ is why StockIQ is or is not suggesting an order for a given item.
The answer to the question nearly always lies in the Order Schedule, which is where the combination of all of your supply, demand, on-hand, and inventory & order policies comes together.
Here are some common things to check.
General
- Look at your safety stock settings and forecast for that item - are they within the range that you expect? If not, modify safety stock settings and/or your forecast to be more in line with what you think.
- Is the item coming into (or going out of) season? StockIQ always plans for what's going on at lead time, not for right now.
- Is the on-hand quantity listed in StockIQ correct?
- Are the open supplies (PO's, Transfers, Work orders) listed correct?
- Are the open/firm/back ordered customer orders listed in the order schedule correct?
Why isn't an Order Being Suggested?
- You don't need any - The simplest reason for not seeing an order suggestion...(drumroll)... is that you don't need any product. If you're not projected to be below your safety stock level any time soon, such as if you have little or no demand, then there's no need to suggest an order for more.
- Order Policy - Check that the item's order policy is a stocking order policy. If the policy is something like "Buy To Order" or "Do Not Order", then StockIQ likely won't be suggesting an order.
- Existing PO's are covering you - You may think that it's about time to order an item, but if you already have existing PO's in place that cover your projected needs, then StockIQ won't suggest additional orders for an item - see also the 'Open Order Lookahead' below for a special case of this.
- Today is not a Workday for your site - For most organizations, Saturday and Sunday are not configured as workdays for your locations, meaning that StockIQ will not suggest any orders to be released or received on these days. So, if you're working on Saturday or Sunday, then very likely you will see NO suggested orders. Extend your coverage to Monday, and your suggestions will appear.
- Holidays - Similar to the workday issue above, if you have specified holidays for either your site or a supplier, StockIQ will adjust planning around those holidays, meaning that you might not see a release or receipt when you'd normally expect. Holidays are flagged with the special flag, per colors listed in the Order Schedule Detail Grid topic.
- Vendor Schedules - If you have order, shipment, or delivery schedules specified, then StockIQ will adjust order releases and receipt date to match these schedules. Note you can force StockIQ to "look ahead" by using the extend coverage box in the Place Order Display Options window.
- Open Order Lookahead - There is a feature in StockIQ called the "Open Order Lookahead" that will look for existing open PO's or transfers, and see if they are arriving "soon enough" after our suggested order that we can avoid placing the duplicate order. This is usually set to 10 days. So, if StockIQ wanted you to order 5 units, but a large PO for 20 units was scheduled to arrive 5 days after what lead time would indicate, we will suppress placing an order to avoid placing an unnecessary, duplicate order.