Introduction to Demand in Operations

Demand is a powerful concept that is central to understanding Operations.  Dive into all things Demand with this introductory video, that uses the Review Demand page to walk you through how Demand is calculated, how it changes and how to troubleshoot issues.

How is Demand calculated?

Outstanding Demand - that amount that is needed to produce today - is roughly calculated as follows:

Total Variants from Orders - Inventory on Hand - Tasks Planned = Outstanding

If all Outstanding Demand is met, and you have additional quantity of Tasks planned, then this results in Carryover being created.  Carryover is tomorrow's Inventory.

Demand terms defined

Demand
Demand is the total amount that is needed by orders and Internal Demand that are due today or by tasks that will create Carryover that have this item as an ingredient in its recipe.

Inventory
Inventory is the total available inventory for this item. Inventory is created when a task is marked as complete.

Tasks 
Tasks is the total amount of planned tasks for today for this item.

Outstanding 
Outstanding is the amount of demand that has not been planned. Create more tasks to reduce Outstanding. Auto Plan will create enough Tasks to reduce Outstanding to zero.

CarryoverCarryover is the projected inventory at the end of the day if all planned tasks are completed. as complete.

How often is Demand updated?

Demand is updated based upon the schedule set by your plan, but is generally from every 30 seconds to every 5 minutes.  Please review the Pricing page to see current limits.

Can I run Auto Plan multiple times?

Yes!  You can run it as many times as you need, though it will caution you to wait a few minutes between attempts.

What causes Demand to change?

Demand can increase or decrease in a few ways:

1. You can move an order to a future roast date, which will reduce today’s demand since that order isn’t necessary to fulfill.
2. You can add new orders with a Ready status, add or remove items on an order or cancel an order entirely - all will change demand.
3. You create Internal Demand by planning extra tasks not needed to fulfill orders.  As an example, planning to create an extra 50 x 5lb units of your best selling espresso blend will increase your blend demand by 250 lb, and the individual roast components in the blend by their appropriate amount.  If those roasts were made up of pre-blended green, then there would be additional demand for creating those items as well.  Your demand flows downwards...automatically.

What does it mean when a Demand indicator is red?

A red Demand indicator at the top of app indicates that the some producible item in your account has outstanding Demand (i.e. that tasks need to be planned in order to fulfill Demand).  Clicking the red abacus takes you to the Operations Dashboard, which shows which resource(s) has outstanding Demand.  

If you see a red Demand indicator, your quickest solution is to Auto Plan to create whatever tasks are needed. 

How to create orders as Pending by default

By default, all orders created manually inside of RoasterTools will be created with the Ready status.  All Ready orders will trigger a Demand recalculation, which can sometimes be unintentional.

If you'd rather have an approval process before orders get the Ready status, you can make Pending your default status for all manually created orders.  Here's how:

1. Visit Settings > Sales > Default Order Status
2. Choose Pending from the dropdown
3. Click update

All future orders should be Pending by default.  You can override the default status when creating an order.  

How to update the Roast Date for multiple orders

The Order Scheduler is great if you want to make a small number of changes to orders or fine tune your production schedule.  But if you need to update many orders at once, the best option is to use the Batch Actions on the Orders page.  Here's how to update the roast date for many orders at once:

1. Visit Orders
2. Select one or more orders on the page
3. Click on Batch Actions > Update Roast Date > select a roast date
4. Click Update

You can also get a quick filtered view of orders that are due today by clicking on the "Due Today" area of the Operations Dashboard.  

Frequently Asked Questions about Demand

What happens to orders that aren't fulfilled?

Your unfulfilled orders will remain as items to be done inside of Operations, until you one of the following:

• cancel the orders
• fulfill the orders
• change the orders

Basically, everything carries over to the next day as you left it.  

I deleted or changed an order.  Why isn’t Demand updated?

A couple reasons that Demand is not updated right away:

• You have planned tasks that are still outstanding that are creating Internal Demand, and these have propped up the Demand amount.
• Demand is automatically recalculated on a schedule depending upon your plan size.  Upgrade to the Roastery or Plant tiers to see the change faster.

What about future demand?  Can I use a future date to calculate Demand?

It is something that we are considering for a future release.  Please contact Support to add your request for this feature!

Internal Demand, what’s that?

Internal Demand is any demand that is not supported by an Order.  You create Internal Demand by planning extra tasks not needed to fulfill orders.  As an example, planning to create an extra 50 x 5lb units of your best selling espresso blend will increase your blend demand by 250 lb, and the individual roast components in the blend by their appropriate amount.  If those roasts were made up of pre-blended green, then there would be additional demand for creating those items as well.  Your demand flows downwards...automatically.