Understanding Inventory Reservations

The reservation processes for PeopleSoft Inventory:

Reserves stock at the business unit level for demand lines with soft-reserve items.
Promises stock for demand lines with ATP items.
Releases demand lines downstream for picking by setting the line's fulfillment state to Releasable.

Reservations can be initiated several different ways:

Using the run control page to launch the Reserve Materials process.
Launching the Reserve Materials process from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management and the Create/Update Stock Request component in PeopleSoft Inventory.

For stock requests, select the Background option for MSR Entry Reservations on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page.
Launching the online reservations process from the Order Entry Form component in PeopleSoft Order Management and the Create/Update Stock Request component in PeopleSoft Inventory.

For stock requests, select the Online option for MSR Entry Reservations on the Setup Fulfillment-Reservation page. The online reservations process enables the user to receive online feedback that the line has been reserved, promised, or set to releasable status.
Using the Inventory_Reservation EIP within the PeopleSoft Integration Broker.
Using the Fulfillment Workbench.
Using reservation processes to reserve pegged supply received and putaway into an inventory business unit.

Stock is reserved to the outgoing demand that is was pegged.
For work orders only, using the online reservations process in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management.

In addition, when work orders are automatically created in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management, by the Run Projections and Run Preventive Maintenance processes, the online reservations process can be launched to reserve material.

In addition, the Shortage Workbench can be used to manually control reserving, promising, and releasing demand lines.

Reservation Rules

The Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP use reservation rules defined in PeopleSoft Inventory to determine when to reserve, promise, and move the fulfillment state from unfulfilled to releasable. These reservation rules are not applied to work orders from PeopleSoft Maintenance Management. The reservation rules are:

Term	Definition
Line Reservation Rule	Defines the specific criteria that must be satisfied by this individual demand line before the demand line is moved to the releasable state. For example, a line reservation rule might be that the reserved or promised quantity must equal or exceed 90 percent of the requested quantity on the line before it is set to the releasable state. Demand lines without a line reservation rule will always be considered to have passed their line level rule. This is important during the order reservation rule evaluation.
Line Reservation-Backorder Rule	For previously backordered demand lines, this rule defines the specific criteria that must be satisfied by this individual demand line before the demand line is moved to the releasable state. For example, a line reservation rule might be that the reserved quantity must equal 100 percent of the requested quantity on the backorder line before it is set to the releasable state.
Order Reservation Rule	Defines the specific criteria that must be satisfied by the entire order or grouping that this individual demand line is in, before the demand line is moved to the releasable state. For example, an order reservation rule might be that all the lines in an order must satisfy their line reservation rule before the order can move downstream.

Term

Definition

Line Reservation Rule

Defines the specific criteria that must be satisfied by this individual demand line before the demand line is moved to the releasable state. For example, a line reservation rule might be that the reserved or promised quantity must equal or exceed 90 percent of the requested quantity on the line before it is set to the releasable state.

Demand lines without a line reservation rule will always be considered to have passed their line level rule. This is important during the order reservation rule evaluation.

Line Reservation-Backorder Rule

For previously backordered demand lines, this rule defines the specific criteria that must be satisfied by this individual demand line before the demand line is moved to the releasable state. For example, a line reservation rule might be that the reserved quantity must equal 100 percent of the requested quantity on the backorder line before it is set to the releasable state.

Order Reservation Rule

Defines the specific criteria that must be satisfied by the entire order or grouping that this individual demand line is in, before the demand line is moved to the releasable state. For example, an order reservation rule might be that all the lines in an order must satisfy their line reservation rule before the order can move downstream.

The default setting of the reservation processes is to soft-reserve or promise partial quantities for a demand line and hold the line in the unfulfilled state until a reservation rule released them downstream. The demand line can go through the reservation processes multiple times and could soft-reserve or promise more stock each time. However, a reservation rule can override the default setting and not reserve partial quantities in the unfulfilled state.

If there are no reservation rules that apply to the demand line, then the check box for Partial Qtys Can Ship determines if partial quantities can be reserved and released downstream.

For product kits, the reservation processes also look to the Release Multiple Kits check box to determine when to set the product kit to the releasable state.

Line Backorder Rules

Based on the criteria on the reservation rule, a demand line could be put to the releasable state even if all or part of the requested quantity cannot be reserved. In this case, the reservation rules have released a shortage. The Reserve Materials process, online reservations, Fulfillment Workbench, and Inventory Reservation EIP use the line backorder rule to determine what should be done about the shortage. The line backorder rule can:

Create a backorder.
Cancel a backorder.
Hold the demand line in the unfulfilled state and notify the proper user.

Manual intervention is then required using the Shortage Workbench.
Release the shortage to the releasable state.

This essentially lets the shortage flow downstream so that the backorder decision can be made at shipping time rather than during the reservations process.

Note:

When a backorder is created and the Create Adhoc Requisitions check box on the Setup Fulfillment page has been selected, then an adhoc replenishment request is created to be processed by PeopleSoft Purchasing or a third-party purchasing application.