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Introduction to Supply

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Written by Baptiste Saussine

Who is this for ?

  • Procurement leaders

  • supply managers

  • logistics managers who track incoming material

What you will learn:

  • what the Supply app covers

  • how a purchase order is structured in Pelico

  • what each status and date means

  • what you can do from the Purchase Order Book


1. What the Supply app is for

If your plant produces goods, you need to track incoming material from the moment it is requested to the moment it reaches the line. The Supply app follows that whole life cycle and warns you when something is going to be late.

It covers three kinds of supply event.

Event

What it is

Purchase Request (PR)

A formal request to buy goods or services. It states which part you need, how much, and when.

Purchase Order (PO)

A formal agreement with a supplier for a quantity of parts to be delivered within a set timeframe.

Stock Transfer Order (STO)

A stock movement between two plants in your own organisation.

Who uses it

  • Procurement leaders

  • Supply managers

  • Logistics managers, as a secondary audience

The app has four views.

View

What it is for

Purchase Order Book

Track every open supply event, delivery by delivery

Supply Planning

Work part by part rather than order by order

Line of Balance (multi-equipment)

Not a Supply view. See the note below.

Missing Parts

Focus on the parts that are short or about to be

Event Explorer Books

Explore supply events and their upstream and downstream links


2. How a purchase order is built

Pelico breaks a purchase order into three levels. You need this to understand the Purchase Order Book, because the book works at the deepest level.

Level

What it holds

Purchase Order (PO)

The agreement with the supplier

Purchase Order Line (POL)

One part, with its list of delivery dates and quantities

Purchase Order Line Schedule (POLS)

One specific delivery: one date, one quantity

So a single purchase order can hold several lines, and each line can hold several scheduled deliveries.

💡 This is why the Purchase Order Book has more rows than you have purchase orders. Each row is one delivery, not one order. It is the level at which you actually chase a supplier, so it is the level Pelico works at.


3. Purchase Order Book

This view shows every open supply event at the delivery level.

💡 Where did my order go? Once a delivery has arrived and your stock has been updated, that row leaves the Purchase Order Book. The book shows what is still outstanding. If a line disappears, it has usually been received.

3.1 Delivery statuses

Each scheduled delivery moves through these statuses.

Status

What it means

Pending

The supplier has not committed to a date or a quantity

Confirmed

The supplier has committed to a delivery date and quantity

Shipped

The shipment has left the supplier

In Transit

The supplier has given a shipping transit number and the goods are on their way

Delivered

The parts have arrived and been added to stock


💡 Shipped comes before In Transit. Some older material lists them the other way round. The sequence above is the one the product actually uses to sort by lifecycle progress.

3.2 On-time delivery status

The OTD status tells you whether a delivery will make it in time for production.

Status

What it means

On Time

The delivery arrives before the production date

Delayed

The delivery arrives on or after the production date

Missing Info

No OTD date is available

⚠️ Read that second line carefully. A delivery arriving on the production date counts as delayed, not on time. Pelico assumes you need the part in hand before production starts, not the same day. This surprises people the first time they see it.

3.3 The Reliability Index

This is a risk score at part level. It helps you decide which parts deserve your attention when everything looks urgent.

Pelico builds it from three things.

Input

Examples

Part likelihood

Stock level, safety stock ratio

Supplier likelihood

The supplier's past delivery performance

Impact of a shortage

How unstable demand is for this part

💡 The Reliability Index answers a different question from the OTD status. OTD tells you whether this delivery is late. The Reliability Index tells you how much you should worry about this part in general. A part with good OTD and a poor index is one to watch.

3.4 The dates in the book

Six dates appear on a delivery, and they are easy to confuse. Each answers a different question.

Date

What it means

The question it answers

Created Date

When the purchase order was generated

How old is this order?

Original Requested Date

The date first requested, matching the original MRP date

What did we ask for at the start?

Promised Date

The most recent date the supplier has committed to

What has the supplier actually agreed to?

Need Date (MRP Date)

Calculated by your MRP system from demand

When do we need it?

Availability Date

When the part will be ready to use — the delivery date plus any processing delay

When can production actually have it?

Suggested Delivery Date

Calculated by Pelico for efficient stock management

When would we ideally receive it?

💡 The three worth reading together are Need Date, Promised Date and Suggested Delivery Date. Need Date is what production requires. Promised Date is what the supplier has agreed. The gap between them is your problem. Suggested Delivery Date is Pelico's view of the best timing, which is not always the earliest possible date.

3.5 What you can do from here

Act on a delivery

Action

When you use it

Pull-in

You need the parts sooner than planned

Push-out

You need the parts later than planned

Cancel

You have no projected need for the parts in the current timeline

💡 Pull-in and push-out are also produced automatically as recommendations. Pelico compares your real needs against your planned deliveries and suggests moves. See Pelico's Algorithms.

Filter and group

  • Filter to narrow the list, by supplier, part, or other criteria.

  • Group to aggregate, by supplier, by MRP code, or by other categories.

Export and import

  • Export the book as an XLS or CSV file.

  • Import an exported file to update comments on deliveries in bulk.

Simulate

You can simulate a new delivery date or a new quantity on a delivery. Pelico then recalculates:

  • Availability dates

  • Suggested delivery dates

  • OTD status

See Simulations for how scenarios are saved, shared and committed.

Escalate and comment

  • Escalate a part so your team works from the same information.

  • Add, edit or delete comments on supply events.


4. Supply Planning

This view works part by part rather than order by order. It is where you read the stock projection of bought parts over time, and where you simulate supply scenarios.

It contains every plant part that meets either of these conditions:

  • It has at least one supply event: a purchase order, a purchase request, or a stock transfer order.

  • Its sourcing type is Buy or Make / Buy.


💡 The default sort puts your worst problem first. Parts are ordered by the Late column, biggest backorder at the top. You do not have to go looking for the critical parts — they are already on the first row.

4.1 What a cell shows

Each column is a period of time, and each cell is the aggregate for that period. Set the time unit to day, week or month.

A weekly view showing 4 parts needed in W19 tells you 4 are needed that week. It does not tell you how many work orders that is, or which day of the week.

4.2 Choosing what the main row displays

The Main rows setting changes what value appears on each part's line. Four options, each answering a different question.

Option

What the row shows

Colours

Projected stock with propagation of blockers (default)

The realistic projected stock. Supply increments stock at its Availability Date. Late purchase orders and blocked work orders, transfers and service orders do not increment stock.

🔴 negative · 🟡 conditionally positive · 🟢 positive

Safety status without propagation of blockers

A more optimistic projection. Blocked work orders, transfers and service orders do increment stock. Late purchase orders still do not.

🔴 below zero · 🟡 between zero and safety stock · 🟢 above safety stock

Need Quantity

What is needed, rather than what will be in stock.

🔴 at least one consuming event uncovered · 🟡 at least one conditionally covered · 🟢 all covered

Resources Quantity

What is coming in, rather than what will be in stock.

🔴 at least one producing event blocked · 🟡 at least one conditionally covered · 🟢 all covered


⚠️ The two projections answer different questions. The default propagates blockers, so it tells you where your stock really runs out. The safety-status option assumes blocked orders will produce anyway, and compares the result against your safety stock. Reading one while thinking of the other is the most common way to misread this view.

4.3 Settings worth knowing

Setting

What it changes

Status colour: standard projected stock

The colour reflects the projected stock at the end of the period.

Status colour: worst consumption coverage

The colour reflects the lowest projected stock within the period — surfacing shortages that happen mid-period and recover before it ends.

Override grey for no-consumption periods

Off by default: cells with no event stay grey. Switch it on for continuous colour across the row.

Include conditional events

On by default. Switch it off and no stock-incrementing events are counted at all — the projection then runs on current stock and consumption only.

Show stock value with Safety Time

Shifts every consumption date forward by your safety time.

Cumulated value

Shows running totals instead of per-period values. Cumulation starts as far back as there is an event.

Show completed orders

Adds a column with the quantity purchased, manufactured or delivered since the start of the year. Requires a specific data integration.


💡Worst consumption coverage is the setting people wish they had known about. With a monthly time unit and the standard setting, a part can run out on the 9th, be replenished on the 22nd, and show green — because the end of the month looks fine. Switch to worst consumption coverage and the shortage appears.

4.4 Organising the rows

Sorting

  • Blocking and cond. covering — the Late column is sorted by red cells first, most critical to least, then yellow.

  • Blocking only — sorted by red cells alone.

Row consolidation

  • By part in a single plant — one line per plant where the part is used, each with its own stock projection.

  • By part across plants — one consolidated line covering every plant.

Hovering the toggle reveals Need/Resources (consolidated across plants) and Part in Plants (separate projections per plant).


💡At any point, Back to default in the view settings returns every parameter to its standard value. Useful when you have changed several settings and the view stops making sense.

4.5 What you can do from here

  • Open the 360 view of a part.

  • Create a ticket to collaborate on a part.

  • Export the view for offline analysis or sharing.

  • Simulate a change: double-click a cell, type the value to simulate, then select Simulate.


⚠️ You cannot create a new event from this view. You can only move an event planned at one time to another time. To simulate a delivery delay, set the original period to zero and the new period to the quantity, you are moving it, not creating it.

While a simulation runs, a black banner appears at the top. Show master plan displays the pre-simulation values from your ERP, the banner opens the Simulation Basket, and the X exits the simulation.

4.6 Supply Planning and the Planning app

Relevant only if both applications are available in your plant. Three differences:

Difference

Detail

Views

The Equipment and Consumed parts views are not available in Supply Planning.

Data scope

Supply Planning covers all Buy, Make-or-Buy and Subcontractor parts, plus any part with at least one supply event. The Planning app covers all parts with at least one event or stock information.

Cycle time

Compressing the cycle time of producing work orders is not available in Supply Planning.


5. A note on the Line of Balance

You may see "Line of Balance (multi-equipment)" listed among Supply's views in older material. There is no Line of Balance view in the Supply application.

The Line of Balance is a Production Control view. "Multi-equipment" is not a separate view either — it is a display mode of that same grid, grouping several equipments and work orders together rather than focusing on one.

If you are looking for a Line of Balance, open Production Control.


6. Missing Parts

This view lists the parts that are short, or about to be: parts whose Availability Date falls after the date they are needed, or for which no supply event exists at all. Use it to find the critical parts quickly rather than scanning a projection.

As in the other views, you can filter to narrow the scope and save your filter set as a routine. You can create a ticket directly from a part's row.

The same view exists in Production Control

Relevant only if both applications are available in your plant. The two cover different populations of parts.

App

Which parts it groups

Supply

Parts needed for any event — customer orders, work orders, service orders — that have been bought at least once.

Production Control

Parts needed only for work orders and planned orders, which may never have been bought.


💡If you are a procurement manager, the Supply version is the one you want.


7. How Supply connects to the rest of Pelico

A late delivery does not stay in Supply. It travels.

What happens

Where you see it

A delivery slips

Purchase Order Book, OTD status turns to Delayed

The part runs short

Line of Balance and Missing Parts in Production Control

Work orders lose coverage

Work Order Book, coverage turns yellow or red

Production stops

Equipments page, Production Stop Date

A customer order is at risk

Customer Order Book in Customer Support

💡 This chain is why the Supply app matters beyond procurement. A two-week supplier delay is a purchasing problem on Monday and a customer problem by Friday. Pelico lets you see the second consequence while you still have time to act on the first.


8. Glossary

Term

Definition

Availability Date

When a part will be ready to use in production.

Created Date

When the purchase order was generated.

Missing Info

OTD status meaning no OTD date is available.

MRP

Material Requirements Planning. The system that calculates what to buy and when.

Need Date

When production needs the part, calculated by your MRP from demand. Also called the MRP Date.

On-Time Delivery (OTD)

Whether a delivery arrives in time for production.

Original Requested Date

The date first requested, matching the original MRP date.

POL

Purchase Order Line. One part on a purchase order, with its delivery dates and quantities.

POLS

Purchase Order Line Schedule. One specific delivery: one date, one quantity.

Promised Date

The most recent delivery date the supplier has committed to.

Pull-in

Moving a delivery earlier.

Purchase Order (PO)

A formal agreement with a supplier.

Purchase Request (PR)

A request to buy, not yet an agreement.

Push-out

Moving a delivery later.

Reliability Index

A risk score at part level, built from part, supplier and shortage impact.

Sourcing type

Whether you make a part, buy it, or both.

Stock Transfer Order (STO)

A stock movement between two of your own plants.

Suggested Delivery Date

Pelico's calculated best delivery timing, for efficient stock management.


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