What Is a Planned Order Receipt?

A planned order receipt is a system-suggested future supply of an item, shown in the bucket where it would arrive, that no one has committed to yet. It is the planning layer's proposal to cover a projected shortfall: build or buy this quantity by this date and the balance recovers. Until a planner firms it into a real work order or purchase order, it remains a suggestion. Firming a planned order receipt is what turns it into a scheduled receipt, which is confirmed, relied-upon supply.

This entry defines the planned order receipt and shows how it behaves inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of planning terms, see the manufacturing glossary, and for the firm supply it becomes once released, read what is a scheduled receipt in MRP.

How it works

The mental picture is the dotted line on a stock chart: if we build 100 units next week, the shelf will recover. The dotted line is not a promise yet, it is a proposal. A planned order receipt is that dotted line drawn in a specific bucket, with a specific quantity and date, waiting for a human to say yes.

The planning layer generates one whenever the projected available balance would fall below its threshold. It works out how big the shortfall is, sizes the proposed quantity by the item's lot-size rule, and offsets it by lead time so the receipt lands in the bucket where the gap appears. The suggestion then sits in the projection as provisional supply.

Because it is only a suggestion, it does not touch the shop floor or the ledger. It is a decision surfaced to the planner: firm it as-is, adjust the quantity or date first, or ignore it if demand is about to change. Only firming creates a real order. That deliberate pause between proposal and commitment is what keeps a planning run from flooding the floor with orders no one has reviewed.

A concrete example

Suppose a product's projection shows the balance drifting downward. In week two, demand of 60 units draws the balance to 25. In week three, another 40 units of demand would take it to negative 15, below the safety threshold. That is a shortfall the system must address.

The planning layer proposes a planned order receipt: build 50 units, due in week three, sized by the item's lot rule. In the chart, the balance in week three no longer dips below zero; instead it recovers to 35, lifted by the provisional receipt. The planner sees the dotted-line proposal and firms it. Firming releases a real build-to-stock order, and the planned order receipt becomes a scheduled receipt, a committed job that will complete and post 50 units to inventory in week three.

Had the planner ignored the suggestion, the solid balance line would have shown the real outcome: stock falling below safety and, eventually, below zero.

How EDGEBIC uses it

EDGEBIC surfaces planned order receipts as replenishment suggestions inside its inventory projection. As it rolls the projected available balance forward bucket by bucket, any period where the balance would breach its threshold produces a suggested order, sized by the product's lot-size rule and offset by lead time, shown as provisional supply that lifts the balance from that bucket on.

Firming a suggestion is a deliberate planner action. It creates a real build-to-stock manufacturing order and stamps the projection so the once-provisional receipt is now a committed scheduled receipt. From that moment the finite scheduling engine takes over the new order, placing its operations on real work centers, so the receipt date the projection nets against reflects the true schedule rather than a fixed lead-time guess.

This keeps the planning board honest in two ways. The projection shows both the solid balance you get if you do nothing and the recovered balance you get if you accept the proposals, so the consequences of inaction are visible. And nothing reaches the floor until a human firms it, so the plant is never surprised by an auto-released order. To see the firm supply a planned order receipt becomes, read what is a scheduled receipt in MRP. For the running balance these receipts lift, see what is projected available balance. And for the suggestion object the planner firms, read what is a replenishment suggestion.