Pending POs causing Stock-Outs

Hi all,

I’ve searched for an answer on this for a few days but cannot come up with anything definitive and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. I’ve recently taken on the role as purchasing supervisor at a mid-sized company and essentially I am just responsible for replenishment. 95% of our replenishment can be addressed by a secondary buyline which compiles product from many different vendors that we can source from the nearest distribution center. (note: we belong to a regional ownership group and are technically not the same entity as the distribution center, so in practice the DC functions like any other vendor). And fortunately for us, the distribution center is local so we have a 1-2 day lead and can run pretty lean because of it.

The problem arises when we place bulk buys from other vendors with long lead times. Essentially, the product on these bulk purchase orders usually arrives within 4-6 weeks but during that time eclipse will not forecast a need for the product because demand is satisfied by these bulk orders. Therefore, the secondary buyline we use to order from the local DC will ignore SKUs that are below min or out of stock entirely.

What, if any, options do we have to fix this issue?

Hi Brandon,

Have you looked into locking the PO release date on the long lead purchase? I think you are probably getting a purchasing “change suggestion” to change date to move up the long lead PO. If you lock the date, I think you might get a “new PO suggestion” instead to satisfy immediate need for part.

Nancy

Thanks for the quick response, Nancy.

That sounds logical, but I’m not even sure how to lock the release date on the long lead purchase order.

It’s here Brendon: