Supplier constraints and order management
The product, supplier, family and capacity constraints Flowlity respects when it recommends orders, and where you set each one.
Constraints are the real-world rules your orders must follow: how long a supplier takes to deliver, the minimum quantity it accepts, how often you can order, how much fits in a truck. Flowlity takes them into account when it recommends orders, so that the planned orders you see in Planning and Supply orders can be sent as they are.
The constraints
Lead time (in days)
A product and its supplier
Product Suppliers tab, supplier settings, or Change lead time in the product list
Aligns the recommended orders with the lead time, and sets the order placement deadline
Minimum order quantity
A product
Product Suppliers tab
Each recommended order is at least this quantity
Lot size
A product
Product Suppliers tab (Fixed lot size)
Each recommended quantity is a multiple of the lot size
Order frequency
A product
Your data (shown in Product Details > Constraints)
At most one recommendation per cycle of this length
Full truck
A supplier
Supplier settings (Full truck qte)
The total ordered from the supplier each week matches the full truck quantity
Supplier MOQ
A supplier
Supplier settings (Min order qte)
The total ordered from the supplier each week is at least this quantity
Supplier order frequency
A supplier
Supplier settings (Order frequency)
At most one order to the supplier per cycle of this length
Tag family MOQ
A product family (tag)
Settings > Tags, Family MOQ tab
The total ordered for the family is at least this quantity
Capacity
A capacity unit
Capacity module
Alerts you when planned orders exceed the capacity limit or stay below the min load
Flowlity only uses the constraints activated for your site. To see them, open the Planning agent in the Agents module: each constraint is marked Used or Not used. The family MOQ needs activation: ask your Customer Success Manager to activate it.
Where to edit them
Product level: in Planning, open Product Details (the (i) icon), click Edit, and change the values in the Suppliers tab of Edit Product Details: Lead time, Minimum order quantity, Fixed lot size. See Products.
Supplier level: in Settings > Suppliers, under Constraints (optional): Full truck qte, Min order qte, Order frequency and Lead time. A lead time set here applies to every product of the supplier. See Suppliers.
Many products at once: in the Planning list, select products and choose Change lead time in the actions menu.
Example
A product has a Minimum order quantity of 500 and a Fixed lot size of 100, with a lead time of 12 days.
The plan needs 620 units in a week: Flowlity recommends 700, the next multiple of 100.
The plan needs 120 units: Flowlity recommends 500, the minimum order quantity.
The order must arrive on 23 March: its order placement deadline is 12 of the supplier's working days earlier, and earlier still if the supplier is closed in between.
Supplier closures
A supplier can be closed for some periods, for example in summer. Flowlity plans the orders so that no delivery date falls inside a supplier closure.
You declare supplier closures in the supplier settings, in the Site closures tab of the supplier. See Suppliers.
In Planning, closures show in the tooltip of the Planned Orders cells and in the Supplier closures section of the Product strategy panel.
Closures of your own sites are a different setting. See Site closures.
Several suppliers for one product
Quotas: when a product has several suppliers, the Quotas tab of the product sets how the orders are shared between them.
Emergency supplier: with this option, when the lead time of the usual supplier would cause a stockout, Flowlity switches to a supplier that can deliver in time, and picks the least expensive one if several can. The Order type column in Supply orders then shows Emergency. Ask your Customer Success Manager to activate it.
Good to know
Optimize in Planning does not take Supplier MOQ, Full truck, Supplier order frequency and MOQ & lot size per group of products into account yet.
Supply orders flags the orders that break a constraint with the Product constraints issue and Supplier constraints issue alerts. You can still validate them if you have a reason to.
When a product is bought under a supply agreement, its MOQ, lot size and lead time show in Product Details > Constraints > Supply agreement constraints.
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