Lots and Reservations

A lot can have stock on hand while much of that quantity is already held for other work. Inventory Clerk checks the lot’s item, location and status before asking for a reservation. The reservation action compares the requested hold with free eligible stock after active Held reservations are deducted from the lot balance.

Available, Quarantined, Expired, Consumed and Blocked describe lot status. Received and expiry dates give the team context for eligibility review. Reservations link a quantity and expiry time to a lot and request, preserving the distinction between stock physically recorded on hand and stock committed to a particular piece of work.

• Lot context. Check the item and storage location alongside the lot code. A matching code alone is insufficient if it belongs to different stock or an ineligible location.
• Quantity protection. The guarded reservation action cannot hold more than free eligible inventory. Success records the reservation and a receipt; rejection records a failed receipt with the shortfall.
• Release and policy. Correcting or canceling authorized request scope releases its held reservations. Inventory Supervisor maintains allocation policy priorities, safety-stock quantities and storage rules for the organization’s operating decisions.

Agree how lot status and expiry affect eligibility for the actual stock being handled. Establish the meaning of an active hold and how expiry is processed before using the free-stock calculation for operating decisions. A reservation expiry date needs a defined release practice; the clerk should not assume that seeing an old date makes the hold disappear.

Review the allocation policy with the supervisor. Its channel, priority, safety-stock quantity and effective date explain the team’s intended allocation decisions. Agree how that policy is applied alongside the free-inventory guard. Use the same base unit when comparing on-hand quantity, existing holds and the proposed reservation so the calculation describes real stock.

Use a lot with 80 units on hand and active holds totaling 30 units. The free quantity is 50 units. A request to hold 60 units must fail with a shortfall of 10; it must not create the larger reservation simply because the physical balance is 80.

Repeat with an eligible hold within the free quantity, then retry the same request-and-lot operation. The original result should be reused without creating a duplicate hold. Cancel the authorized request scope and check that its held reservation is released and the free quantity is restored. The lot’s on-hand balance should still be explained by stock movements rather than the reservation release.

• Available Lots — Lot identity, location, balance and dates for eligibility checks.
• Held Reservations — Quantities committed to requests, with expiry and revision context.
• Allocation Policies Register — Active policy settings maintained by the supervisor.

Rehearse eligible stock reservation and use correction and reversal when authorized work changes.