Quick Summary: The Excess redistribution module helps balance inventory between locations by identifying where excess stock can be moved to locations with shortages. By prioritizing redistribution before ordering from suppliers or DCs, businesses reduce excess, prevent stock outs, cut unnecessary purchasing, and improve overall inventory health.
Why Excess Redistribution Matters
Excess redistribution allows businesses to make better use of existing stock across their network. Instead of placing new supplier orders or relying only on DC replenishment, the module identifies where excess exists and where shortfalls are expected, then recommends efficient transfers to balance stock.
This improves performance by:
Reducing the number of new orders placed on suppliers.
Increasing sales by preventing stock outs and covering shortfalls sooner.
Reducing excess and releasing capital tied up in unneeded stock.
How Excess Redistribution Works
In a typical setup, a location that needs stock places an order on a supplier or internal DC and waits the full lead time.
However, the Redistribution module looks across all other locations for opportunities such as:
A location with excess stock that could fulfill the requirement sooner.
A location with stock that is not required (or even obsolete) but can still be used elsewhere.
Transfer routes with shorter lead times than supplier or DC supply.
This enables stocked-out or at-risk locations to receive stock earlier while reducing excess where it is not needed.
The feature also prevents new supplier orders at the source location by ensuring enough buffer remains to avoid immediately triggering replenishment.
Using the Excess redistribution functionality
The Excess Redistribution feature provides two core capabilities that help balance stock:
Order from other locations when a location is stocked out or predicted to stock out
Send excess stock to other locations where it will be more useful
The following sections explain each method in detail, followed by how to commit or clear redistribution orders as part of the standard workflow.
Order from locations
Order from locations
In the app, navigate to the Orders screen > Order from locations tab.
Select the destination location that requires stock.
Choose whether to view stocked, non stocked, or all items.
Use the plus selector to add source locations. The top location is the most preferred source and the bottom is the least preferred.
Confirm transfer lead times for each selected source and override them if needed.
Click Create order to generate a redistribution recommendation based on the configured locations and lead times.
Review the created order. The following sections are color-coded on the image below:
Yellow: Product data is for the user to identify the product
Blue: Destination location data explains the stock position at the location with a requirement
Red: Source location data explains the stock position and constraints at each potential supplying location
Green: Transfer data relates to the quantity that will be transferred
View the destination location (one) and supplying locations (one or many) by clicking on the ellipses.
Distribute excess
Distribute excess
In the app, navigate to the Orders screen > Distribute Excess tab.
Select the destination location that requires stock.
Choose whether to view stocked, non stocked, or all items. Note: Obsolete items appear in the selection to allow stock to be redistributed from a location where it’s obsolete to a location where it is required.
Use the plus selector to add source locations. The top location is the most preferred source and the bottom is the least preferred.
Confirm transfer lead times for each selected source and override them if needed.
Click Create order to generate a redistribution recommendation based on the configured locations and lead times.
Review the created order. The following sections are color-coded on the image below:
Yellow: Product data is for the user to identify the product
Blue: Destination location data explains the stock position at the location with a requirement
Red: Source location data explains the stock position and constraints at each potential supplying location
Green: Transfer data relates to the quantity that will be transferred
View the supplying location (one) and destination locations (one or many) by clicking on the ellipses.
Commit and clear
Commit and clear
The redistribution order may be committed or cleared. These actions control how the app updates stock availability and prevents the same stock from being allocated more than once during the current refresh cycle.
Commit: When an order is committed, the quantities available and the quantities required for redistribution at each location are updated to reflect the transfers on the order. This ensures that any subsequent redistribution order will not attempt to allocate the same stock again or fulfill the same requirement twice.
Clear: When an order is cleared, the impact of the current redistribution order is removed from all products and locations. This returns the system to a clean state and allows you to build a new redistribution order using different locations, priorities or lead times. Clearing functions as the reverse of committing.
Required stock, redistribution stock and recommended transfer quantities
Stock available for redistribution calculation
Stock available for redistribution calculation
The app uses a specific calculation to determine how much stock a location can safely release to other locations.
For stocked items, a location will release any net stock greater than:
Safety stock + Replenishment cycle + Available stock buffer
provided there is enough stock on order to arrive within the lead time.
The Available stock buffer is a configuration parameter expressed in days. It reduces the chance of recommending a redistribution that would result in a new supplier order being triggered at the source location shortly afterwards.
For non-stocked and obsolete items, a location will release the portion of net stock that exceeds firm demand within the lead time.
Hint: The Excess status uses a different calculation that includes supplier minimum constraints. For this reason, stock available for redistribution may be higher than the calculated excess.
Required stock calculation
Required stock calculation
Required stock for a location is the greater of:
The ideal order recommendation, which excludes supplier minimum and multiple constraints
Forecast demand during out of stock periods within the lead time, for stocked out or potential stock out items
This second calculation includes an additional check. The predicted out of stock period must be at least as long as the Minimum stockout duration. This configuration value prevents sending stock that will arrive too late to resolve the shortage.
Redistribution quantities calculation
Redistribution quantities calculation
Redistribution quantities are calculated by matching the available stock at source locations with the required stock at destination locations. The recommended transfer quantity is the lower of:
The available stock
The required stock
If redistribution minimum order quantities or order multiples are enabled in configuration, they are applied using the constraints of the source location.
Stock is allocated according to the priority order of selected locations. The top listed location is used first, followed by the next, until all selected locations have been evaluated.
New redistribution quantities also take previously committed redistribution orders into account within the current data refresh cycle.
Process flow for creating redistribution, DC distribution and supplier orders
Two rules ensure that order recommendations remain accurate:
Rule 1: Each redistribution order should be created, reviewed, amended and committed before the next one is started. Only work on one redistribution order at a time.
Rule 2: Redistribution orders should be created in the host system and brought back into the app through a data refresh. This ensures that DC distribution and supplier order recommendations are aligned with the latest redistribution activity.
Based on these rules, the recommended process is:
Create the redistribution order in the app.
Review, amend and commit the redistribution order.
Repeat the process as needed, committing each order before creating the next one.
Create the committed redistribution orders in the host system.
If two way integration exists, this can be done by downloading redistribution orders from the app.
Run a full data refresh to bring these newly created redistribution orders back into the app.
If a full refresh cannot run on demand, or takes a long time, wait for the next scheduled refresh instead.
Once refreshed, create DC distribution orders and supplier orders as required.
FAQs
Overview
Overview
Question: What is a redistribution order?
Answer: A redistribution order is a collection of transfers that moves stock between a single source and many destinations or between a single destination and many sources. Redistribution orders are created using the Order from locations and Distribute excess tabs.
Question: What does committing an order do?
Answer: When a redistribution order is committed, the app adjusts the stock available for redistribution and the stock required for every item and location that appears on the order. This prevents newly created redistribution orders from attempting to supply the same stock or fulfill the same requirement again. Committed orders reset during the batch process and are only effective within a single refresh cycle.
How to
How to
Question: How can I set the lead time for redistribution orders?
Answer: Use the Configuration parameter Default lead time to set the automatic lead time between each pair of locations. If certain location pairs require different lead times, adjust them when creating the order. After the order is created, lead times can only be viewed, not amended.
Question: How do I prioritize locations with close proximity or for other reasons?
Answer: When selecting locations for Order from locations or Distribute excess, sort them from most preferred at the top to least preferred at the bottom.
Question: How can I add extra items to a redistribution order?
Answer: It is not currently possible to add additional items or add new source or destination locations to an existing redistribution order.
Calculations
Calculations
Question: How do the minimum and multiple constraints work?
Answer: Redistribution orders can include a Minimum order quantity (MOQ) and an Order multiple (OM), depending on which Configuration parameters are enabled.
The app applies MOQ and OM from the source location, because these are supply constraints and different source locations may have different requirements. This differs from standard order recommendations, where MOQ and OM are recorded at the destination because there is only one defined supply source.
If only an OM is specified, it also acts as the MOQ.
A redistribution quantity will not be recommended if the source location does not have enough stock (based on the redistribution calculation) to satisfy the MOQ or OM.
If an MOQ is not divisible by the OM, the MOQ is automatically increased to the next valid multiple.
Once the MOQ requirement is met, recommended quantities are rounded:
Up to the nearest multiple if enough stock is available
Down to the nearest multiple if stock is insufficient for the higher multiple but still above the MOQ
These constraints ensure redistribution recommendations are feasible given the source location’s supply requirements.
Other
Other
Question: What is the “potential saving” value?
Answer: Potential saving represents the value of inventory that would be moved through the redistribution. In most cases, this movement reduces future supplier order recommendations by a similar value, meaning less purchasing spend.
If multiple destinations are selected, the value appears as a range because the final allocation depends on overlapping requirements across those locations.
Question: Which items are included in a redistribution order?
Answer: To appear in a redistribution order, an item must have some stock available at the source location (according to the redistribution calculation) and stock required at the destination location. If there is no availability or no requirement, the item will not be included in the order.
To explain further, consider a redistribution order that distributes excess from one source location to three destination locations.
If an item has no stock available, it will not appear on the order.
If there is stock available, but none of the three locations requires stock, the item will also not appear.
If there is stock available and only one location requires stock, only that single destination will appear on the order.
Only if there is stock available and three destinations require stock, will the item appear with three potential destinations.
Redistribution orders are limited in this way to eliminate noise and make them faster and easier to review.
Question: Can I amend a committed order?
Answer: Yes, but be sure to commit the order again once complete.
Other redistribution orders that have already been created in the app will not be affected by this adjustment. It may be necessary to review and adjust them accordingly, or recreate them as new redistribution orders which will automatically take account of the updated commitments.
Question: Can I work on a redistribution order that was created before the last data refresh?
Answer: Yes, however redistribution orders created before the last refresh will remain with their previous quantities and may no longer be optimal based on the latest inventory position and predictions. Also, committed orders are reset during the refresh process, so you will need to commit the order again.
Question: How do I avoid distributing the same stock to multiple locations (or fulfilling the same requirement from multiple locations)?
Answer: Create, review and commit each redistribution order before creating the next one.
Question: How do I make sure that DC distribution and supplier order recommendations take redistribution into account?
Answer: Ensure the redistribution orders have been created in the host system and then refresh the app (or wait for the next refresh).
Question: How can I prevent redistribution from triggering a regular order at the source location?
Answer: The app will not recommend a redistribution that would result in an immediate supplier order recommendation at the source location. How long it takes until a new supplier order recommendation appears can be controlled with the Configuration parameter “Available stock buffer” which is specified in days. This setting, in conjunction with the replenishment cycle, can be interpreted as the minimum time until a new supplier order should be expected, under the assumption that all factors remain constant and sales follow the forecast.
Question: How can I prevent redistribution to locations that are going to be briefly out of stock?
Answer: Use the Configuration parameter “Minimum stockout duration” to prevent redistribution recommendations for out of stock periods that are short in relation to the transfer time. For example, if an item is predicted to be out of stock for 3 days and the transfer lead time is 7 days, a redistribution order would arrive too late to make a difference. In practice, the minimum stockout duration should be configured to exceed the typical transfer lead time by a comfortable margin.
⚠️ Watchouts
Commit sequencing: Commit each redistribution order before creating the next one to avoid duplicate allocations.
Lead time accuracy: Incorrect lead times may create transfers that arrive too late to be useful.
Obsolete items: Obsolete items may appear as valid redistribution candidates if needed elsewhere.
Refresh timing: Committed orders reset after the next data refresh, which can change recommended quantities.
💡 Tips
Prioritize nearby locations: Sorting locations by proximity reduces transfer time and prevents unnecessary supplier orders.
Use Available stock buffer wisely: A larger buffer reduces the chance of triggering a supplier order at the source.
Start with biggest opportunities: Use the “potential saving” value to focus on high-impact redistribution candidates first.
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