Electrical Material Shortage Analyzer
Test whether current inventory plus incoming receipts can cover a planned consumption schedule. The result highlights the period where available stock first becomes insufficient and quantifies the peak deficit.
Analyze material availability
Shortage analysis
| Period | Opening available | Delivery | Planned use | Ending balance | Status |
|---|
How shortage analysis differs from a stock forecast
A stock forecast tells you what balance is expected. A shortage analyzer focuses on the risk boundary: whether usable stock falls below zero after the planned issue in any period. Reserved inventory is removed at the beginning so stock held for another approved purpose is not accidentally treated as free material.
Method
Available opening = Physical stock − Protected stock. Each period then adds only receipts due in that period and subtracts planned use. A shortage occurs where the resulting balance is negative.
Practical interpretation
A shortage date is useful for procurement because it gives you the latest period by which a replacement order or schedule change must be addressed. It does not determine a supplier lead time or tell you whether the delivery itself is reliable.
Limitations
- No automatic safety stock policy is assumed.
- One or two delivery events are modeled for quick what-if analysis.
- Actual consumption may differ from the plan because installation progress changes over time.
- For controlled materials, warehouse availability and inspection status should be maintained separately from accounting stock.
FAQs
Why use protected stock?
Stock can exist physically but still be unavailable because it is reserved for another work package, damaged, quarantined or otherwise committed.
Does a zero balance mean a shortage?
No. Zero means the modeled demand exactly consumes available stock in that period. A negative balance is the shortage signal in this model.
Can deliveries arrive in the same period as consumption?
Yes. The planner credits a delivery before subtracting planned use for that period.
Can this analyze several materials?
Run the tool separately for each material or category with its own unit and delivery profile. Combining unlike units would make the shortage result meaningless.