Stock Reservation for Work Order

Note: This feature is available from ERPNext Version 16.

Stock Reservation for Work Orders allows manufacturers to reserve the required raw materials before production begins. By reserving inventory specifically for a Work Order, ERPNext ensures that the required materials remain available throughout the manufacturing process and cannot be consumed by other transactions.

This feature improves production planning, prevents stock shortages during manufacturing, and helps organizations fulfill customer orders on time by securing inventory for planned production.

How Stock Reservation Works

Before using this feature, Stock Reservation must be enabled in the system settings.

Once enabled, users can reserve available inventory directly from a Work Order. Upon submission of the Work Order, ERPNext automatically creates Stock Reservation Entries for the available raw materials in the specified Source Warehouse.

The reserved stock is exclusively allocated to that Work Order and cannot be used by any other manufacturing, stock, or sales transaction until the reservation is released.

Enabling Stock Reservation

To use Stock Reservation for manufacturing, the feature must first be enabled in the Stock Settings.

1. Navigate to Stock Settings.
2. Enable the Enable Stock Reservation option.
3. Save the settings.

After enabling this option, a new Reserve Stock checkbox becomes available in the Work Order.

Reserving Stock from a Work Order

Once Stock Reservation is enabled, users can reserve inventory while creating a Work Order.

1. Create or open a Work Order.
2. Enable the Reserve Stock checkbox.
3. Submit the Work Order.

During submission, ERPNext automatically checks the available stock in the Source Warehouse and creates Stock Reservation Entries for the available quantities.

These reserved materials are now dedicated exclusively to the selected Work Order.

Reserved Stock Usage

Inventory reserved for a Work Order cannot be consumed by any other transaction.

This ensures that the required raw materials remain available when manufacturing begins, eliminating the risk of stock being allocated to another production order or inventory transaction.

The reservation remains active until:

• The materials are transferred for manufacturing.
• The reservation is manually removed.
• The Work Order is cancelled.

Unreserving Stock

There may be situations where reserved materials need to be allocated to a different Work Order.

In such cases, ERPNext allows users to remove the existing reservation.

After unreserving the stock:

• The inventory becomes available again.
• The same stock can be reserved for another Work Order.
• Production planning can be adjusted without affecting inventory accuracy.

Reservation for Work In Progress (WIP)

When manufacturing begins, raw materials are typically transferred from the Source Warehouse to the Work In Progress (WIP) Warehouse using a Stock Entry of type Material Transfer for Manufacture.

During this transfer, ERPNext automatically updates the reservation.

• The reservation is removed from the Source Warehouse.
• The same quantity is automatically reserved in the Work In Progress (WIP) Warehouse.

This ensures that inventory remains reserved throughout the manufacturing process, even after it has been transferred to production.

Finished Goods Reservation

ERPNext also supports reservation of finished goods after manufacturing is completed.

If a Sales Order is linked to the Work Order, ERPNext automatically reserves the manufactured finished goods for that Sales Order once the Work Order is completed.

This ensures that the completed products are immediately allocated to the corresponding customer order and are not consumed by other transactions.

Business Benefits

• Ensures raw materials are available before production begins.
• Prevents inventory from being consumed by other Work Orders or transactions.
• Improves production planning and inventory allocation.
• Supports seamless movement of reserved stock from the Source Warehouse to the WIP Warehouse.
• Automatically reserves finished goods against linked Sales Orders.
• Reduces production delays caused by material shortages.
• Improves order fulfillment and inventory accuracy.

Key Summary

Stock Reservation for Work Orders in ERPNext Version 16 enables manufacturers to reserve raw materials before production starts, ensuring inventory is dedicated to a specific Work Order. As manufacturing progresses, reservations automatically move from the Source Warehouse to the Work In Progress Warehouse, and completed finished goods can be reserved against linked Sales Orders. This end-to-end reservation process improves inventory control, production planning, and customer order fulfillment.