How to Set a Lot Size Rule in EDGEBIC

To set a lot size rule in EDGEBIC, you choose on the product whether replenishment suggestions come out as the exact shortfall or rounded up to whole lots. In EDGEBIC by User Solutions the lot size rule shapes the quantity a suggestion proposes after the reorder trigger fires. This post covers the two documented rules, when each fits, and how to confirm suggestions round the way you expect.

Lot sizing is one dial in the replenishment model. For how triggers, demand, and buffers work together, read forecasting and replenishment explained. This post is the narrow task of choosing the sizing rule. Availability varies by installation, so check which inventory features your build exposes.

Lot sizing is where inventory policy meets the messy reality of how you actually buy or build. A supplier ships in cases, a process runs in fixed batches, a setup is expensive enough that you want to amortize it over a larger run: all of these push you toward ordering in standard lots rather than the exact shortfall. Other parts you can order in any quantity, and there the exact shortfall keeps inventory lean. The lot size rule is how you tell the projection which world a part lives in, so its suggestions come out already sized the way you would order. Get it right and the Suggested column becomes a list of orders you can act on as-is rather than numbers you have to round by hand. Get it wrong and every suggestion needs a mental adjustment before you can firm it, which is exactly the manual arithmetic the rule exists to remove, so the small effort of setting it correctly pays back on every replenishment cycle for the life of the part.

Before You Start

• The product is a stocked item with a reorder method configured, since the lot size rule only acts on suggestions the reorder method produces.
• You know how you order or build the part: any quantity, or in fixed batch sizes.
• If you use fixed lots, you know the reorder quantity that represents one lot.

Choose the Lot Size Rule

1. Open Products and edit the product, or double-click its grid row.
2. Scroll to the Inventory Planning section.
3. Set the Lot Size Rule field to one of the two documented rules:
   • Lot-for-lot makes the suggestion equal the exact shortfall.
   • Fixed order quantity rounds the suggestion up to whole multiples of the reorder quantity.
4. If you chose fixed order quantity, confirm the Reorder Quantity field holds one lot's worth.
5. Click Save.

How Each Rule Sizes a Suggestion

Once the reorder trigger fires, the calculator works out a raw shortfall: enough to restore the target level. The lot size rule then acts on that figure.

• With lot-for-lot, the suggestion is the raw shortfall, unchanged. If a bucket is short by 300, the suggestion is 300.
• With fixed order quantity, the raw shortfall is rounded up to whole lots of the reorder quantity. If the reorder quantity is 250 and the shortfall is 300, the suggestion rounds up to the nearest whole 250-unit lot.

The rule never changes when a suggestion appears. Timing is the reorder method's job; sizing is the lot rule's job.

A Note on Yield

If the product has a yield below one, suggestions are inflated to account for scrap before you see them. That inflation is separate from lot sizing and applies on top of it. A yield-adjusted part orders more than the raw shortfall so the good output still covers demand.

Pairing the Rule With a Reorder Method

The lot size rule does not act alone. It shapes the output of whichever reorder method fires the suggestion. With the reorder-point method, the raw suggestion restores the trigger and adds the reorder quantity, and then the lot rule rounds it: fixed order quantity rounds that figure up to whole lots, lot-for-lot leaves it exact. With the min-max method, the raw suggestion tops the balance up toward the maximum, and again the lot rule decides whether that top-up rounds to whole lots or lands on the exact figure. The pattern is consistent: the method decides the raw quantity and the timing, the lot rule decides the rounding. Set them together, because a fixed-lot rule with no sensible reorder quantity to round to produces suggestions that look arbitrary.

What Changes When You Save

No stock moves. The lot size rule is a planning parameter. On the next projection load, suggestions in the Suggested column and the matrix Suggested lens are sized by your rule: exact for lot-for-lot, rounded to whole lots for fixed order quantity.

Keep in mind that a suggestion, however it is sized, is a recommendation and not incoming supply. The projection displays the suggested quantity but does not add it to the projected balance, so later buckets keep falling as if nothing were ordered. The suggestion becomes real supply only when you firm it into an order and schedule that order, at which point it appears as a scheduled receipt. The lot rule therefore governs the size of a recommendation you still have to act on, not an automatic order.

How to Check It Worked

1. Open the Inventory calendar for the product.
2. Find a bucket with a suggested order quantity above zero.
3. For lot-for-lot, confirm the suggestion equals the shortfall between the projected balance and the target.
4. For fixed order quantity, confirm the suggestion is a whole multiple of the reorder quantity.

If a fixed-lot suggestion is not a clean multiple, check that the reorder quantity holds a real lot size and that the rule is actually set to fixed order quantity rather than lot-for-lot.

Common Mistakes

• Setting fixed order quantity with no reorder quantity. Fixed rounding needs a lot size. Without a reorder quantity, there is nothing meaningful to round to.
• Expecting the rule to change suggestion timing. It does not. The reorder method and its trigger decide when a suggestion fires; the lot rule only sizes it.
• Confusing yield inflation with lot rounding. They are separate. Yield inflates for scrap; the lot rule rounds for order size. Both can apply to the same suggestion.
• Assuming rules beyond the two documented here. Lot-for-lot and fixed order quantity are the documented rules. Do not plan around a lot-sizing behavior that is not one of these two.

Pair the sizing rule with the trigger in how to set a reorder point, then turn the resulting suggestions into orders with how to firm a replenishment suggestion into an order, and browse every task in the EDGEBIC how-to library.