Demand

Independent demand: what the outside world wants from you, by when. Two boats by December. Fifty bearings for a customer's own repair shop. A forecast of ten kits a quarter.

Each row is one part, a quantity and a due date, either an order (a commitment) or a forecast (planned for but not promised; the run treats both the same, the badge is for you). Reference is whatever names it on your side: the customer's order number, the project.

The run plans for every open row. A row opens on creation and closes when you say so: Close once it has been satisfied, Cancel if it never will be. Neither deletes anything, and a closed row no longer drives planning.

Demand is only half of what planning reacts to; a part's reorder point is the other half, and needs no row here. Use demand for what is dated and specific; use reorder points for what you always keep.

Demand that arrived from a channel shows the channel and the channel's own reference, and how much of it has shipped. Shipping is recorded by the channel's adapter through the API, which issues the stock and closes the row when everything has gone; the planning run only counts what is still to ship.

A row opens its edit form while it is open. New demand (planner) records one by hand.