What Is Forward Netting in Inventory Planning?

Forward netting is projecting supply forward in time and netting demand against time-phased receipts, not just the point-in-time on-hand quantity, so a build completing later in a run can satisfy a consumer whose need date is after that receipt. Where simple netting looks only at what is physically on the shelf this instant, forward netting also credits the units that will arrive during the planning run. The shelf can be empty today, yet a demand due Wednesday is satisfiable if a build finishes Wednesday. It is the difference between reading the current tank level and knowing a delivery is on its way.

This entry defines forward netting and shows how it behaves inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of planning terms, see the manufacturing glossary, and for netting demand straight from stock, read what is consume-from-stock netting.

How it works

Netting is the act of subtracting available supply from demand to see what genuinely needs to be made or bought. The question is what counts as available supply. In the simplest form, point-in-time netting, only the current static on-hand quantity counts. Anything that arrives later in the same run, including builds that will complete during it, is ignored. That view is conservative and predictable, but it can miss real supply that is only hours or days away.

Forward netting widens the view. Instead of a single current number, it builds a time-phased map of finished-goods supply: existing on-hand now, plus each build-to-stock order completing at its scheduled time during the run. Each demand is then netted against what will be available by its own need date, not by today. A demand due after a receipt can draw on that receipt.

The effect is that supply and demand are matched in time rather than at a single instant. A build finishing Wednesday becomes available supply for any need dated Wednesday or later. This is what lets a run satisfy a later consumer from an earlier producer within the same planning pass, rather than forcing a fresh build for demand that incoming supply already covers.

A concrete example

Think of a fuel gauge on a road trip. The simple gauge shows only the petrol in the tank right now. If it reads empty, the trip planner says stop and refuel. That is point-in-time netting: it sees the current level and nothing else.

Now imagine a smarter gauge that also knows a fuel delivery is scheduled at the next town. It can say, "you are empty here, but you will have a full tank once today's delivery arrives, so you can promise to reach the town after that." That is forward netting. In inventory terms, the shelf holds zero brackets today, but a manufacturing order for a hundred brackets completes Wednesday. A customer order needing a hundred brackets on Wednesday is netted against that Wednesday receipt and comes out satisfied, with no new build required, even though the point-in-time gauge would have insisted the shelf was bare.

How EDGEBIC uses it

In EDGEBIC, the inventory projection can net demand in two ways, and forward netting is the time-phased mode. When it is enabled, the engine assembles a map of finished-goods receipts, current on-hand plus build-to-stock orders completing during the run, and nets each demand against what will be available by its need date. A later build can then satisfy a later need within the same run, which is the behavior that lets the plant promise against incoming supply rather than only against present stock.

Forward netting is a mode you turn on rather than the default. The baseline is point-in-time netting, which credits only the current on-hand quantity and ignores receipts arriving later in the run. Keeping the conservative behavior as the starting point means a shop gets predictable, familiar results out of the box and opts into the smarter, time-phased view when it wants builds completing during a run to count as supply.

Because the projection is what feeds available-to-promise and replenishment, the netting mode shapes the answers a planner sees. Under forward netting, a demand covered by an in-run build shows as satisfiable and raises no unnecessary replenishment; under point-in-time netting the same demand might trigger a build the plant did not actually need. To see the base act of drawing demand from existing stock, read what is consume-from-stock netting, and for the forward balance the projection carries period by period, read what is projected available balance. For the promise this supply picture supports, see what is available to promise.