Order Routing: Calculating Estimated Available Days

The estimated available days for a SKU indicates the number of days remaining before a SKU is available for sale. This plays a key role in how orders are routed. 

When RetailOps is determining where to route an order item, the estimated available days is calculated for all potential inventory sources. RetailOps then selects the source with the lowest available days that has sufficient inventory unclaimed by other orders. This typically results in the earliest orders being fulfilled by the sources with the earliest available date, though this may change depending on your Order Routing settings in System Config.

The estimated available days calculation for each inventory source will vary depending on the type of inventory stored. Read below for more info on how this is calculated for local, external, and inflight inventory.

1. Local Inventory. Since local inventory is presumably available immediately, the available days = 0.
2. External Inventory.
   1. PIM Est Days: If the Est Days field is set for the external SKU in the External Inventory window in the PIM, that value will be used.
   2. Vendor Default Estimated Ship Days: If the PIM Est Days is not set, the Default Estimated Ship Days field in Vendor Settings will be used. Note: If you do not configure this setting, it defaults to 0. 
3. Inflight Inventory.
   1. PO Est Ship Date: If the Est Ship Date has been set on the PO for that item, the available days will be the difference between the current date and the Est Ship Date.
   2. PIM Est Days: If the PO Est Ship Date is not set, the Est Days field in the External Inventory window in the PIM is used.
   3. Vendor Default Estimated Ship Days: If the PIM Est Days is not set either, the Default Estimated Ship Days field in Vendor Settings will be used. Note: If you do not configure this setting, it defaults to 0.

In the example above, an order is placed for 2 units of SKU 123. There are 5 different sources for the SKU and each is evaluated independently. After all sources are evaluated, RetailOps selects the earliest source that would have sufficient inventory. In this case, that would be the DS Vendor.