What Is a Replenishment Suggestion in Inventory Planning?

A replenishment suggestion is the quantity the planning system recommends you build or buy to restore stock above a trigger level. When the projected balance for a product drops below a reorder point or a minimum, the system computes how much would bring stock back to target, rounds it to a sensible lot size, and adjusts for scrap. The suggestion is shown for the planner to review; it changes nothing until the planner acts on it.

This entry defines the replenishment suggestion and shows how it behaves inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of planning terms, see the manufacturing glossary, and for the balance whose shortfall triggers a suggestion, see projected available balance.

How it works

A replenishment suggestion is the dotted line on a stock chart: "if we build this much next week, the shelf will recover." It is the planning brain doing the arithmetic a purchasing agent would otherwise do by hand, spotting that stock is heading below a safe level and proposing the amount that fixes it. Like a purchase suggestion waiting to become a purchase order, it is a recommendation, not yet an action.

The calculation runs per bucket and only for products set up to reorder:

1. Check the trigger. If the projected balance is at or above the trigger, no suggestion fires. The trigger is the reorder point under a reorder-point scheme, or the minimum level under a min-max scheme.
2. Compute the raw need. If the balance is below the trigger, the raw quantity is the target minus the projected balance. The target is the reorder point plus a reorder quantity, or the maximum level under min-max.
3. Apply lot sizing. A lot-for-lot rule uses the exact raw need; a fixed-order-quantity rule rounds up to whole multiples of the lot size.
4. Inflate for yield. If the product yields less than one good unit per started unit, the quantity is scaled up so that after scrap the net good output still meets the target.

One design choice matters most: the suggestion is displayed but not rolled into the projected balance of later buckets. The plan reports what happens if nobody acts, so a persistently short product honestly shows several suggestions in a row rather than pretending the first already fixed the rest. The balance only improves once a suggestion is firmed into a real order.

A concrete example

A make-to-stock casting uses a min-max scheme with a minimum of 50, a maximum of 400, a fixed lot size of 100, and a yield of 90 percent. In one bucket the projected balance is forecast at 40, below the minimum of 50, so a suggestion fires.

• Raw need to reach the maximum: 400 minus 40 equals 360.
• Fixed lot sizing: round 360 up to whole lots of 100, which is 4 lots, or 400.
• Yield inflation: 400 divided by 0.9 rounds up to 445.

The suggested order quantity is 445. If the planner firms it, a build-to-stock order for 445 is created; at 90 percent yield it will net about 400 good units into stock, restoring the balance. On the next projection, that order shows as a scheduled receipt in its completion bucket, the balance climbs above the minimum, and the suggestion for that bucket drops to zero.

How EDGEBIC uses it

In EDGEBIC, replenishment suggestions appear as a suggested-order-quantity column on the Inventory Calendar, computed for make-to-stock products that have a reorder method set. The calculation follows the trigger, target, lot-sizing, and yield-inflation steps above, and the suggestion is held out of the projected balance so the calendar shows the true unaided picture. Products without a reorder method, and make-to-order products, receive no suggestions.

Turning a suggestion into action is a single step. A planner selects a row with a non-zero suggested quantity and firms it, which creates a build-to-stock order carrying a replenishment demand source and the bucket date as its due date. That order enters the scheduling queue like any other and, on completion, posts a receipt to the inventory ledger. Because the demand source is recorded, replenishment orders are distinguishable from customer-driven and master-schedule-driven orders in any report.

For the full sizing logic with worked lot-sizing and yield examples, read EDGEBIC forecasting and replenishment explained. To do it hands-on, follow the how-to for firming a replenishment suggestion into an order. To understand the rounding step in depth, continue with the lot size rule.