Scheduled Receipt — Manufacturing Glossary

A scheduled receipt is an open purchase order or work order that MRP expects to deliver inventory on a specific date. Scheduled receipts represent committed supply — orders that have been released to suppliers or the shop floor and are in progress. In the net requirements calculation, scheduled receipts reduce the quantity that needs to be ordered.

At User Solutions we emphasize that scheduled receipt accuracy is just as important as inventory accuracy. If MRP thinks 500 units are arriving next week but the supplier has not even started production, the plan is built on a false assumption.

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How Scheduled Receipts Work

When a planned order is released (converted to a live PO or work order), it transitions from a planned receipt to a scheduled receipt in MRP. The key differences:

Scheduled Receipts in the MRP Grid

In a standard MRP planning grid, scheduled receipts appear as incoming supply in the period they are expected:

The scheduled receipt of 150 in Week 6 is a committed order — perhaps a PO placed three weeks ago. MRP counts on this supply and does not generate additional orders for Week 6. But Week 8 shows a projected shortage, so MRP will create a planned order.

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Scheduled Receipt Example

A manufacturer has released three purchase orders for aluminum castings:

These are scheduled receipts in MRP. When MRP calculates net requirements for aluminum castings, it subtracts these 650 units from gross requirements across Weeks 10-14.

On Thursday, Foundry A notifies the buyer that PO-8801 will ship one week late — arrival in Week 11 instead of Week 10. The buyer updates the expected date in the ERP system.

When net change MRP runs Friday morning, it recalculates:

• Week 10: Gross requirements of 180, no scheduled receipt → net requirement of 180 (previously covered by PO-8801)
• MRP generates an action message: "Expedite PO-8801 or source 180 units from alternate supplier"

The planner contacts Foundry B about an emergency shipment of 180 units, preventing a production line shutdown.

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Why Scheduled Receipts Matter for Scheduling

They represent real supply commitments. Unlike planned orders (which are suggestions), scheduled receipts are expected inventory. The production schedule depends on them arriving as planned.

Inaccurate dates cascade through the plan. If a scheduled receipt date is wrong, MRP's entire downstream calculation for that component and its parents is wrong. This is a leading cause of "MRP says we are fine but the shop floor is short."

They connect purchasing to production. Scheduling tools like Resource Manager DB use scheduled receipt dates as material availability constraints. A job cannot be scheduled before its materials arrive, and those arrival dates come from scheduled receipts.

Monitoring is essential. Planners should review open scheduled receipts daily, confirming expected dates with suppliers and updating the system immediately when changes occur.

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Related Terms

• Net Requirements — The calculation that subtracts scheduled receipts from gross requirements to determine what still needs to be ordered.
• Planned Order — The MRP recommendation that becomes a scheduled receipt once released.
• Purchase Order — The most common source of scheduled receipts for purchased materials.

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FAQ

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This term is part of the Manufacturing Glossary. For a deep dive into material planning, see our MRP Guide.