Generate new demand

Toggle to ignore existing inventory.

The Generate New Demand option on plan inputs allows you to control whether Autoplan should ignore existing supply and always create new planned items. This is useful when you want to see gross demand—what you need to build regardless of what's already on hand—or when you want to force new production runs even when inventory exists.

Overview

There is now a Generate New Demand flag on plan inputs. This will always be turned off by default. When on, Autoplan will not consider existing inventory when creating the plan.

When Generate New Demand is checked (enabled), Autoplan will:

• Ignore existing inventory, runs, and purchase order (PO) lines

• Always create new planned items for the full demand quantity

• Show gross demand regardless of what's available

• Propagate this behavior to all child parts in the BOM hierarchy

When Generate New Demand is unchecked (default), Autoplan will:

• Allocate demand against existing supply (inventory, runs, PO lines) when available

• Only create new planned items when existing supply is insufficient

• Show net demand (demand minus available supply)

The mBOM for the above part (part A) looks like this:

There is some inventory available for Part B:

If we run Autoplan with Generate New Demand unchecked for Part A, we would get results for Part A and Part B, with Part B indicating that there is inventory on hand to fulfill this plan.

If we were to run Autoplan with Generate New Demand checked for Part A, we would see results for each of the Parts in the mBOM but notice that Part B is not associated with any inventory on hand:

How It Works

Flag Propagation

The Generate New Demand flag propagates automatically to all child demands created from the BOM. This means:

1. If you check Generate New Demand on a plan input for a parent part, Autoplan will create child demands for all parts in the BOM.

2. All child demands will inherit is_generate_new_demand=True

3. Child parts will also ignore existing supply and create new planned items

This propagation continues through all levels of the BOM hierarchy (children, grandchildren, etc.).

Mixed Behavior in the Same Plan

Different plan inputs within the same plan can have different Generate New Demand settings. This allows you to:

• Force new production for some parts (Generate New Demand: checked)

• Use existing inventory for other parts (Generate New Demand: unchecked)

Example:

• Plan Input 1: Part A (Generate New Demand: checked) → Creates new planned item

• Plan Input 2: Part B (Generate New Demand: unchecked) → Uses existing inventory if available

Examples

Example 1: Simple Gross Demand

Setup:

• Part: Widget

• Inventory: 15 units available

• Plan Input: 10 units needed

With Generate New Demand checked:

• Result: New planned item created for 10 units

• Inventory: 15 units remain unused

With Generate New Demand unchecked:

• Result: 10 units allocated from inventory

• Inventory: 5 units remaining

• No new planned item created

Example 2: Multi-Level BOM

Setup:

• Parent: Airplane (Generate New Demand: checked)

  • Child: Wing (quantity: 2 per airplane)

    • Grandchild: Fastener (quantity: 10 per wing)

• Inventory: 5 wings, 100 fasteners available

• Plan Input: 3 airplanes needed

Result:

• Airplane: 3 new planned items created

• Wing: 6 new planned items created (3 airplanes × 2 wings, ignoring 5 in inventory)

• Fastener: 60 new planned items created (6 wings × 10 fasteners, ignoring 100 in inventory)

Example 3: Mixed Settings

Setup:

• Plan Input 1: Engine (Generate New Demand: checked, quantity: 5)

• Plan Input 2: Propeller (Generate New Demand: unchecked, quantity: 5)

• Inventory: 3 engines, 8 propellers available

Result:

• Engine: 5 new planned items created (ignores 3 in inventory)

• Propeller: 5 units allocated from inventory (5 allocated from inventory)