Shipped quantity is how much of a sales order line has been fulfilled to date. Ordered quantity minus shipped quantity, floored at zero, is the open quantity still owed to the customer. Shipped is the progress figure; open is the demand that remains. Together they tell a planner exactly how far a line has to go.
This entry defines shipped quantity and its partner, open quantity, and shows how they read inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of terms, see the manufacturing glossary; for the line these figures live on, see sales order line; and for the demand type it retires, see firm demand in planning.
How it works
Every sales order line records two quantities that matter for fulfillment: the ordered quantity, which is what the customer asked for, and the shipped quantity, which is what has actually gone out. Shipped starts at zero and rises as deliveries post. It is never negative.
The figure that drives planning is the difference between them: open quantity equals ordered quantity minus shipped quantity, floored at zero. That open balance is the demand that remains real. A line fully shipped has an open quantity of zero and asks nothing more of production. A partly shipped line places only its open balance on the plan.
The floor at zero is deliberate. If a line ships more than ordered, from a return and re-ship, an over-count, or a correction, the open quantity does not go negative. It reads zero. That keeps a fulfillment quirk from ever creating phantom negative demand in the projection.
A concrete example
A sales order line asks for 100 units of Widget A, due July 15. When entered, shipped quantity is 0 and open quantity is 100, so the plan carries 100 units of demand for that line.
A first shipment of 60 goes out. Shipped quantity rises to 60, and open quantity falls to 40. The plan now carries only 40 units of remaining demand for the line, because 60 have been satisfied. A second shipment of 40 completes the order. Shipped quantity reaches 100, open quantity is 0, and the line places no further demand on the plan.
Now the edge case. Suppose a customer returned 5 units and you re-shipped, ending at 105 shipped against 100 ordered. Open quantity is not minus 5; it is floored at 0. Planning treats the line as fully satisfied and asks nothing more of it. The record still shows 105 shipped against 100 ordered, so the history is honest, but the remaining demand is correctly zero.
How EDGEBIC uses it
In EDGEBIC, shipped quantity is a field on the sales order line, required to be zero or greater, and it rises as fulfillment is recorded. The line also exposes open quantity as a computed value, ordered minus shipped floored at zero, so the remaining balance is always derived rather than stored and can never drift from the two figures behind it.
Because open quantity is what the plan nets against supply, shipping is the mechanism that retires demand. When a confirmed order's line is fully shipped, its open balance is zero and it drops out of the projection's demand, freeing the capacity it once claimed. A partly shipped line keeps only its open balance on the plan. This keeps the projection tracking what is genuinely still owed rather than the original order size long after part of it has left the dock.
To see the full order and its lines, read EDGEBIC sales orders explained. To follow how a confirmed line becomes planned demand and a build, continue with sales order line and demand source.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: A line was for 100 units. I shipped 70, then a return came back and I re-shipped, ending at 105 shipped. Will the open quantity go negative and confuse the plan?
A: No, the open quantity is floored at zero, so 100 ordered minus 105 shipped reads zero, not minus 5. That floor exists exactly so an over-ship, a return, or a correction cannot push the line's remaining demand below nothing and distort the projection. Planning sees an open quantity of zero and treats the line as fully satisfied, placing no further demand from it. If the 105 was a genuine error rather than an intentional over-ship, correct the shipped figure on the line so the record matches what actually left the dock.
Q: My projection still shows demand for a line I know is fully delivered. Why has it not cleared?
A: Check the line's shipped quantity, because the plan clears demand only when the open balance reaches zero. If deliveries went out but the shipped quantity on the line was not updated, the open quantity stays positive and the projection keeps planning against it. Update the shipped quantity to match what actually left, and the open balance falls to zero, retiring the line's demand on the next projection run. The plan reacts to the recorded shipped figure, not to what happened on the dock unless the record reflects it.
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