Lead time

Lead time is the total time required to replenish a stock item, from the date replenishment is initiated through all the steps of purchasing, transporting, receiving, and putting away, to the date the system is updated to show the stock as available to sell. Lead time is updated automatically in the system when the receiving update is performed.

Lead time is a vital piece of the ordering controls used when stock is replenished, and care must be taken if you decide to intervene in the automatic process of calculating lead time. If the lead time for a particular order is unusually short or long, you can exclude that order’s lead time when the average lead time is recalculated.

Average lead time is stored in Product Warehouse Product Setup-Ordering. The value reflects the product’s normal lead time.

You can override the lead time at various points in the replenishment cycle. Average lead time days in Product Warehouse Product Setup is updated if the Lead Time Frozen field is 0. You can override the lead time in these functions:

• Product Administration Month End Processing Report: Based on settings in Product Replenishment Setup-Lead Time, if average lead time falls outside of the minimum or maximum lead time default values, then the default value is used to update average lead time in Product Warehouse Product Setups-Ordering.
• Product Exception Center Administration: You can access a Lead Time History window from the Detail-Ordering window. This lists past receipts based on user-defined criteria. You can change the Ignore Lead Time option on purchase order lines on this window and update the average lead time in Product Warehouse Product Setups-Ordering.
• Purchase Order Entry: You can select Ignore Lead Time on the header or line item. If you enter a Rush purchase order, this option is automatically selected.
• Purchase Receipt of Inventory Entry: You can select Ignore Lead Time on the header or line item. If the purchase order line item does not have a valid vendor or warehouse authorized replenishment path (ARP), this option is automatically selected.
• Sales Order Entry: If a direct order (DO) purchase order is created automatically during Sales Order Entry, Ignore Lead Time is automatically selected for all purchase order lines.
• Purchase Demand Center Entry: When purchase orders are created and updated during the Acceptance/Merge process, the Ignore Lead Time option on the purchase order line items is changed to reflect the setting at the header level.

• VA Order Entry: When purchase orders are automatically created, the Ignore Lead Time option on the purchase order line items is changed to reflect the setting at the header level.