Inventory item reservations

You can create reservations for inventory items and tools to ensure that they are replenished in the inventory stock on time. You can create hard reservations or soft reservations, which are based on the importance of the inventory requirement.

A hard reservation is a request for materials that is defined by the need for an item within a specific timeframe. You can specify that the reorder process includes only hard reservations. You can also specify that inventory items can be issued from a storeroom only when they are associated with a hard reservation. Hard reservations of inventory items are prioritized so that they cannot be superseded by other requests.

A soft reservation is a request for materials that is not subject to a timeframe. You can create a soft reservation to ensure that the item or tool is available for issue at any time that it is needed.

Hard and soft reservation types can be set automatically. You can apply automatic processing to determine hard or soft reservations, which are based on the date that the materials are required. You select automatic processing for reservation types in the Purchase Orders, Purchase Requisitions, and Desktop Requisitions applications. In the Reservation type field of a work order, reservations are set in the Planned Material line. In an internal purchase order, when an attendant storeroom is selected on a purchase order line, you set reservations in the Reservation type hidden field.

The backorder reservation type can also be applied using automatic processing. Backorder indicates that an inventory item or tool can have only hard reservations, and that the reservation quantity must be satisfied by the available balance on the inventory record. An organization must disallow negative availability to use the Backorder reservation type.