How-toMRPeasyPurchasing / Production Planning

MRPeasy Materials Shortage: Plan Purchases Correctly

Question
MRPeasy materials shortage purchase planning

Also searched as

  • MRPeasy how to see what to buy
  • MRPeasy shortage manufacturing order
  • MRPeasy planning lead time purchase order
  • MRPeasy booked vs available stock

Short answer

MRPeasy compares the demand from customer orders and manufacturing orders with available stock, booked stock and open purchase orders, and flags what is short. To act on it, review the shortages, confirm item lead times and minimum stock levels, then create purchase or manufacturing orders and re-check planned dates.

Applies to: MRPeasy cloud manufacturing ERP, current web application. Menu names may vary slightly by plan and version.

How to turn shortages into purchases

  1. 1Open the customer order or manufacturing order showing a shortage and read which items lack coverage and for which dates.
  2. 2Open each short item and compare in stock, booked (reserved) and expected quantities. Note what is booked by other orders.
  3. 3Check the item's supplier lead time, minimum order quantity and lot size. Wrong values here produce wrong planned dates.
  4. 4Create a purchase order for the shortage, selecting the supplier and checking the expected delivery date against the production start.
  5. 5For made-in items, create a manufacturing order for the sub-assembly instead, and make sure its own routing and bill of materials are correct.
  6. 6Set a minimum stock level on frequently used items so MRPeasy suggests replenishment before they become urgent shortages.
  7. 7Receive purchase orders promptly and into the right stock location so available quantities stay accurate.
  8. 8Revisit planned dates after changes. Moving one order can change coverage for others.

Available, booked and expected

The three numbers you need are in stock, booked and expected. In stock is physical quantity. Booked is quantity reserved by orders and manufacturing jobs. Expected is quantity arriving through open purchase orders and manufacturing orders. A shortage exists when demand on a date exceeds what stock plus expected supply can cover by that date.

This is why dates matter as much as quantities. An item may be covered in total, but too late for the production start. A purchase order with a delivery date after the manufacturing order's start still leaves the order flagged. Fix the date, the supplier, or the schedule.

Lead times drive everything

MRPeasy's planning uses lead times on items and routings to place orders in time. If a bought part has a lead time of two days in the system but the supplier really needs three weeks, every plan looks fine until the parts are late. Audit lead times for your top parts by actual receipt history, not by supplier brochures.

For manufactured items, the planned duration comes from the routing operations and work station capacity. Unrealistic cycle times or missing work stations shorten planned dates and make shortages appear later than they should.

Minimum stock and purchase suggestions

Minimum stock levels let the system flag items that fall below a threshold even when no order demands them, which is useful for consumables and fast movers. Set them from consumption and supplier lead time: roughly average usage during the lead time plus a buffer you can justify.

Do not set minimums on everything. Over-flagging teaches planners to ignore the list. Reserve it for parts where a stockout stops production or where lead time is long.

Common data problems behind false shortages

False shortages come from bills of materials with obsolete lines, wrong quantity per unit, unreceived purchase orders, and stock held in locations the order cannot use. Clean the bill of materials before blaming the planner.

Another source is units: a part bought in boxes and consumed in pieces without a correct conversion creates demand or supply off by the pack size. Check conversion on the item before buying.

Common pitfalls

  • !Ordering to the shortage quantity while ignoring minimum order quantity or lot size.
  • !Trusting default lead times that no one has compared with real receipts.
  • !Leaving received purchase orders open so expected supply is double counted.
  • !Reading total quantity and missing that supply arrives after the production start date.
  • !Fixing shortages by adjusting stock rather than fixing the bill of materials or receipt that caused them.

How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this

An ERPray-style assistant grounded in a small ERP can list the orders at risk, the items short for each, the booked quantities that explain it and the open purchase orders with their dates, then draft the purchase orders for a planner to approve. It shows the data it read and respects the user's role. If MRPeasy's own planning view already gives you what you need for a small order book, use that.

Frequently asked questions

What does booked mean in MRPeasy?

Booked means quantity reserved for orders or production jobs, so it is no longer free for other demand even though it is still physically in stock. Available quantity is in stock minus booked, which is why free stock can look lower than on hand.

Why is an item flagged short when I have a purchase order open?

Most often the purchase order's expected date is later than the demand date, the quantity does not cover the full need, or the order is in the wrong state. Compare the delivery date with the manufacturing start and adjust supplier or schedule.

How should I set minimum stock levels?

Base them on average consumption during the supplier lead time plus a justified safety buffer. Apply them to parts that stop production or have long lead times, not to every item, so the replenishment list stays meaningful.

Can MRPeasy plan sub-assemblies automatically?

It plans from the bill of materials and routings, but you still decide and create the purchase or manufacturing orders in the system. Verify in your plan how much is suggested versus created automatically before relying on it.

Related

How-to

Katana Manufacturing Order Ingredients Not Available: How to Resolve

A Katana manufacturing order flags an ingredient as not available when free stock at the order's location is less than the recipe quantity and no incoming purchase or manufacturing order covers the gap. Resolve it by checking the ingredient's stock by location, creating or expediting a purchase order, fixing a wrong location or recipe, or correcting stock with an adjustment or stocktake.

How-to

Fishbowl SQL Query for Inventory by Location

Fishbowl stores physical inventory as rows in the tag table, one per part per location per tracking combination. Join tag to part and location, group by part and location, and sum quantity to get on hand by location. Run it read-only through Fishbowl's reporting module or a read-only MySQL user, and verify column names against your version.

Error fix

Fix Katana API 429 Too Many Requests

HTTP 429 from the Katana public API means your integration exceeded the per-key request allowance for the current time window. Fix it by honoring the retry headers, backing off with jitter, paging with the largest allowed page size, caching reference data such as products and variants, and replacing polling loops with scheduled incremental syncs.

How-to

How to Create a Generic Inquiry in Acumatica

Generic Inquiries (GI) are Acumatica's no-code query builder for joining tables, adding filters, and exposing the result as an inquiry screen, dashboard data source, or API endpoint. Open System > Customization > Generic Inquiry, add your base table, define joins and conditions, then run and save. No SQL or customization project is required.

Error fix

Fix Odoo AccessError: You Are Not Allowed to Access Records

Odoo raises AccessError when a user's security groups do not grant a CRUD right on a model through ir.model.access.csv, or when an ir.rule record rule filters the specific record out for that user or company. Fix it by adding the user to the group named in the error, editing the model's access rights, or reviewing the record rule's domain under Settings > Technical > Security.

How-to

How to Void a Check in Sage 100

Sage 100 voids checks through Accounts Payable > Main > Check and Payment Voiding. Select the bank code, choose the check number, and Sage reverses the Cash Disbursements Journal entry and reopens the invoice it paid. A check that already cleared in Bank Reconciliation or falls in a closed period needs an extra step before it can be voided cleanly.

AI for ERP

AI Demand Forecasting for Manufacturers: Better Numbers and an Explanation Planners Can Trust

AI demand forecasting explains ERP forecast changes in plain language, flags exceptions for planners, and handles short-history SKUs without Excel overrides.

AI for ERP

AI for quote-to-cash in manufacturing and job shop ERPs

AI reads incoming RFQs, drafts quotes from your ERP's own cost and pricing history, and flags parts your shop has never quoted before, keeping the estimator in control.

Stuck on MRPeasy?

Talk to engineers who work inside MRPeasy every week, and who build private AI that answers these questions from your own ERP data.