Estimate how many purchase orders a supplier network can complete within a planning period based on average lead time, concurrent order capacity, and expected supplier availability. The result also shows implied monthly throughput and the unused or missing capacity against your order requirement.
The main result is the estimated number of orders the supplier pipeline can complete in the selected period. Completed capacity is shown conservatively as whole orders, while utilization uses the unrounded estimate.
The model assumes completed orders free a pipeline slot immediately and lead time is reasonably stable. Minimum order quantities and units per order are outside this order-count estimate.
Four suppliers handling 3 concurrent orders each over 90 days, with 18-day lead time and 90% availability, provide an estimated capacity of 54 completed orders. Against 50 required orders, the surplus is 4 and required utilization is 92.59%.
It is the number of separate purchase orders one supplier can actively process at the same time.
They may use working or calendar days, but both inputs must use the same convention.
The formula represents steady-flow throughput; the displayed completion capacity rounds down to whole orders.
It discounts theoretical pipeline time for shutdowns, constraints, or other periods when suppliers cannot process orders.
It measures completed orders. Convert to units separately using the expected units per order when order sizes are consistent.
| Input | Unit | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Active suppliers | suppliers | Suppliers able to process this order type. |
| Concurrent orders per supplier | orders | Orders each supplier can have in progress at once. |
| Planning period | days | Calendar or working days used consistently with lead time. |
| Average supplier lead time | days | Average order start-to-completion duration. |
| Supplier availability | % | Share of theoretical pipeline time expected to be usable. |
| Orders required in period | orders | Demand to compare with estimated completion capacity. |