A production planner opens the inventory system and sees that all required components are in stock.
The work order is released.
A few hours later, production stops.
One component is allocated to another order. Another is still waiting for quality approval. A critical batch is stored at a different warehouse. The packaging material is due tomorrow, but the supplier has delayed delivery. One part exists physically, but its shelf life does not meet the customer’s requirements.
The system was not necessarily wrong.
The business asked it the wrong question.
Knowing that material exists is not the same as knowing that production is ready to begin.
This distinction is where many manufacturing plans fail.
Stock on hand is not material availability
Many manufacturers still plan production using a simple inventory balance.
If the bill of materials requires 100 units and the system shows 120 units in stock, the work order appears ready.
But that stock balance may not reflect operational reality.
Some of the quantity may be:
- Reserved for another customer order
- Allocated to another work order
- Waiting for inspection
- Blocked by a quality hold
- Stored at another warehouse
- In transit between locations
- Expired or approaching expiry
- Assigned to safety stock
- Damaged or awaiting investigation
- Available physically but not in the required lot or specification
A planner looking only at the total quantity can release work that cannot actually proceed.
The result is a production schedule that looks achievable on paper but breaks down on the shop floor.
The cost of releasing work too early
Releasing a work order without confirmed material readiness creates problems far beyond production.
Labour is scheduled but cannot be used
Operators, supervisors and machines may be assigned to a job that cannot start.
The business then has to rearrange the schedule, find alternative work or absorb idle time.
Materials are moved unnecessarily
Warehouse teams may stage available components before discovering that one critical item is missing.
Those materials must then be returned, stored temporarily or left occupying valuable production space.
Other work orders are disrupted
Planners may pull materials from lower-priority jobs to support an urgent order.
This solves one problem by creating another.
Purchasing shifts into emergency mode
Buyers are asked to expedite components, accept higher prices or pay premium freight because the shortage was identified after the work order was released.
Delivery promises become unreliable
Sales and customer service may continue to work from the planned completion date even though production has not genuinely started.
Production reporting becomes misleading
A work order may appear “in progress” even though no productive activity has taken place.
This distorts WIP, capacity and performance reporting.
A premature release therefore affects labour, warehouse activity, purchasing, customer communication and finance.
Material readiness should be calculated at component level
A work order is only as ready as its least available critical component.
Suppose a product requires:
- 10 units of Component A
- 4 units of Component B
- 2 units of Component C
- 1 packaging set
The business may have enough of Components A, B and C, but no approved packaging.
From a production perspective, the product cannot be completed.
A useful material-readiness check should evaluate every required BOM item against:
- Required quantity
- Available quantity
- Existing allocations
- Warehouse location
- Quality status
- Lot or serial requirements
- Expiry conditions
- Expected receipts
- Supplier dates
- Substitute components
- Scrap allowance
- Production start date
This creates a far more accurate view than a simple comparison between BOM demand and stock on hand.
Why allocations matter
Inventory may be physically present but already committed.
Consider two work orders requiring the same component:
- Work Order 101 needs 80 units.
- Work Order 102 needs 70 units.
- Total stock is 100 units.
If the system checks each work order independently, both may appear partially or fully ready.
But the business cannot satisfy both.
The system must understand priority, allocation and demand sequence.
Manufacturers need clear rules for deciding:
- Which customer order has priority
- Which work order receives available stock
- Whether stock can be reallocated
- Who is authorised to override the allocation
- What happens to the affected production schedule
- Whether customer delivery dates need to change
Without controlled allocation, different teams can make promises against the same inventory.
Quality status can make stock unusable
A component can exist physically and still be unavailable for production.
Incoming materials may need inspection before use. A batch may be quarantined after a quality issue. A supplier certificate may be missing. A component may be under investigation because of a non-conformance.
If MRP treats all on-hand inventory as usable, it can recommend production that quality rules do not permit.
This is especially important in regulated and traceability-driven industries, including:
- Medical devices
- Pharmaceuticals
- Cosmetics
- Food production
- Aerospace
- Automotive
- Electronics
- Industrial equipment
Material planning must recognise quality status as part of availability, not as a separate downstream concern.
Location affects readiness
A multi-site manufacturer may have enough total stock across the business but not enough at the production location.
Moving material between warehouses takes time.
A component stored 300 miles away cannot always support a work order scheduled to begin this afternoon.
Material planning should account for:
- Current location
- Transfer lead time
- Transport availability
- Receiving and put-away time
- Inter-site approval
- Customs or cross-border movement
- Required production date
A transfer order may solve the shortage, but only when the stock can arrive before it is needed.
Enterprise-wide stock visibility is useful. Location-specific readiness is what determines whether production can start.
Expected purchase orders are not guaranteed supply
Many material plans count open purchase orders as future availability.
That is necessary, but it also introduces risk.
A purchase order may show a delivery date that has not been confirmed by the supplier. The supplier may deliver partially. Some goods may fail inspection. Transport delays may move the receipt beyond the production start date.
A reliable plan should distinguish between:
- Requested delivery date
- Supplier-confirmed date
- Expected arrival date
- Actual receipt date
- Accepted quantity
- Rejected quantity
It should also highlight when incoming material is expected after the production requirement.
Creating a purchase order does not resolve a shortage. The shortage is resolved when usable material is available at the right location and time.
BOM accuracy remains fundamental
No material-readiness process can compensate for an inaccurate BOM.
If the BOM omits consumables, uses the wrong quantity or references an obsolete component, the work order may appear ready even though the shop floor cannot complete it.
Manufacturers should control:
- BOM versions
- Effective dates
- Component quantities
- Units of measure
- Scrap factors
- Substitutions
- Packaging materials
- Production consumables
- Phantom assemblies
- Engineering changes
MRP should use the correct BOM revision for the specific work order and production date.
Otherwise, the system may be checking readiness against the wrong product definition.
Clear to Build should be a controlled decision
“Clear to Build” should not be a vague status entered manually.
It should represent a defined assessment of whether the work order can move into production.
A Clear to Build check may include:
- All critical materials available
- Materials allocated to the work order
- Required quality approvals completed
- Incoming supply confirmed
- BOM revision approved
- Production routing available
- Capacity confirmed
- Tools and equipment ready
- Customer specifications validated
- Required documentation complete
Not every manufacturer needs every condition.
The important point is that readiness should follow agreed operational rules rather than individual judgement or a single stock figure.
How Salesforce MRP can improve readiness decisions
Manufacturers already using Salesforce often manage customer demand, opportunities, orders and service requirements on the platform.
When MRP runs in a separate system, the planning process depends on integrations to synchronise:
- Customer demand
- Inventory balances
- Purchase orders
- BOM requirements
- Work orders
- Supplier dates
- Production priorities
Even when those integrations are reliable, the timing and depth of information can vary.
A Salesforce MRP approach connects material planning with the live customer and operational records already held on Salesforce.
This allows teams to assess readiness using current demand, stock, allocations, purchasing and production information within one operational data model.
Sales can see when a shortage threatens a customer commitment.
Purchasing can see which open requirements are blocking production.
Production can see which work orders are materially ready.
Management can understand where supply risk affects revenue and delivery performance.
The planner should manage exceptions, not chase data
Production planners should not spend their day comparing spreadsheets, emailing buyers and phoning the warehouse to confirm whether stock really exists.
The system should surface exceptions such as:
- Critical component unavailable
- Stock allocated elsewhere
- Material waiting for quality approval
- Supplier delivery later than required
- Component held at another location
- BOM item without a valid source
- Shortage affecting a priority customer
- Work order released without full readiness
- Substitute material requiring approval
This allows the planner to focus on decisions rather than data collection.
Questions to ask during an MRP demonstration
When reviewing MRP software, do not ask only whether it can calculate net requirements.
Ask the vendor to demonstrate:
- A work order with enough total stock but insufficient available stock
- Material allocated to competing orders
- Inventory on quality hold
- A supplier delivery arriving after the required date
- Stock held at another warehouse
- A BOM revision affecting open demand
- A permitted component substitution
- A Clear to Build assessment
- A shortage linked to a customer delivery date
- A recommended purchase or production action requiring approval
These scenarios reveal whether the system supports real planning decisions or merely produces requirement calculations.
From “stock exists” to “production is ready”
Manufacturers do not lose time because they lack inventory reports.
They lose time because inventory reports do not always explain whether the required material is usable, available, allocated and in the right place at the right time.
A reliable MRP process should move beyond stock balances.
It should help the business determine whether a production order can actually begin and complete as planned.
That is the difference between seeing inventory and understanding readiness.
When customer demand, BOMs, stock, quality, purchasing and production priorities are connected, manufacturers can release work with greater confidence, reduce emergency purchasing and make delivery commitments based on operational reality.
