Capability template for supply chain and inventory
Demand and supply review
The operations lead gets one monthly review from the demand plan, confirmed supply and stock: where confirmed and likely demand outrun supply, what that does to inventory, and the decision each function head has to make. Sales ambition stays separate and nothing is forecast beyond your figures.
Listed under
Add it to a workflow in the Fully Powered Planner, beside the teams and roles that will run it. Book a fit call
The outcome
Once a month, sales, production, purchasing and finance sit down with the same page. It shows, item by item, the demand your supply plan cannot cover, and it shows that demand in three clearly separated layers: orders that are confirmed, units the sales head backs with a stated reason, and sales ambition that has neither. Only supply that has been confirmed counts. A request still waiting on a supplier is shown beside the gap and never subtracted from it.
The page also says what the gaps mean for stock: which items run below their safety stock, which run short, and which end the period holding more than your own allowance, with the cost of that excess. It closes with the decisions each function head has to make, written as questions with their facts. The operations lead edits and approves the draft, and each function head decides their own response.
Who starts the work, and when
The owner or the operations lead runs it at the start of the monthly demand and supply meeting cycle, once sales has updated the demand plan and purchasing has updated what suppliers have confirmed. The same person takes the approved page into the meeting.
What they supply
- The demand plan by item and month: confirmed units, supported units with the reason, and sales ambition.
- The supply commitments by item and month, each marked confirmed or not.
- Stock on hand, safety stock and unit cost for each item.
- Capacity limits by item and month, where there are any.
- The decisions recorded at earlier reviews, and the settings: the months to cover and the function heads.
What comes out
One review in a fixed order: a summary, then the items whose demand the supply plan cannot cover, the inventory implications, anything that could not be tested, the decisions for each function head, the decisions carried from earlier months, and check lines that tie the totals. If a file's column headers do not match, the review stops and asks before drawing anything.
An invented example
Illustrative example with invented data. The company, the items, the suppliers, the roles and every figure below are invented. "Company A" is an invented 35-person business that makes and sells garden planters. The operations lead runs the review; the sales head, the production lead, the purchasing lead and the finance lead each own a part of the response. First come the inputs the operations lead supplied, in full, then the review the capability returned.
The inputs
1. Settings
Review month: December 2026. Review date: Tuesday 1 December 2026.
Periods covered: 2026-12, 2027-01, 2027-02
Supply planning lead: Operations lead
Function heads: Sales head, Production lead, Purchasing lead, Finance lead
Excess allowance: the default (safety stock plus average monthly likely demand)
2. Stock (stock.csv)
item,description,on_hand,safety_stock,unit_cost
A1,Large planter,400,150,18.00
A2,Medium planter,900,200,11.50
B1,Saucer set,300,100,6.00
C1,Self-watering insert,120,60,4.50
3. Demand plan (demand.csv)
item,period,confirmed_units,supported_units,ambition_units,basis
A1,2026-12,300,150,100,Repeat pattern Retailers 1 and 2 last four months
A1,2027-01,250,150,100,Repeat pattern Retailers 1 and 2 last four months
A1,2027-02,200,200,150,Repeat pattern Retailers 1 and 2 last four months
A2,2026-12,250,100,0,Repeat pattern last four months
A2,2027-01,200,100,50,Repeat pattern last four months
A2,2027-02,150,100,50,Repeat pattern last four months
B1,2026-12,180,40,0,Sold with A1 orders
B1,2027-01,150,50,0,Sold with A1 orders
B1,2027-02,120,60,0,Sold with A1 orders
C1,2026-12,100,0,200,
C1,2027-01,80,0,150,
C1,2027-02,60,40,100,
4. Supply commitments (supply.csv)
item,period,source,units,status
A1,2026-12,Own production,250,confirmed
A1,2027-01,Own production,200,confirmed
A1,2027-01,Own production,100,requested
A1,2027-02,Own production,200,confirmed
A2,2026-12,Own production,300,confirmed
A2,2027-01,Own production,300,confirmed
A2,2027-02,Own production,200,confirmed
B1,2026-12,Supplier B,200,confirmed
B1,2027-01,Supplier B,100,confirmed
B1,2027-02,Supplier B,150,confirmed
C1,2026-12,Supplier A,100,confirmed
C1,2027-01,Supplier A,100,requested
5. Capacity (capacity.csv)
item,period,max_units
A1,2026-12,300
A1,2027-01,300
A1,2027-02,300
C1,2026-12,100
C1,2027-01,150
C1,2027-02,150
6. Earlier decisions (decisions.csv)
id,item,decision,owner,due,status
D07,C1,Ask Supplier A for a firm January delivery,Purchasing lead,2026-11-27,open
D08,A2,Hold the A2 run at 300 units a month until January,Production lead,2026-11-20,done
The review
DEMAND AND SUPPLY REVIEW: December 2026
For: Operations lead, for the monthly review on Tuesday 1 December 2026. Periods: 2026-12 to 2027-02. Units as supplied; values at unit cost from the stock file.
Inputs: demand plan demand.csv; supply supply.csv; stock stock.csv; capacity capacity.csv; earlier decisions decisions.csv.
Items: 4 reviewed, 0 not tested.
Summary
Short on confirmed demand: C1, largest shortfall 20 units in 2027-02.
Short on likely demand: A1, largest shortfall 200 units in 2027-02; C1, largest shortfall 20 units in 2027-02.
Below safety stock but not short: none.
Excess stock: A2, 300 units, $3,450.
Short if sales ambition is added: A1, largest shortfall 550 units in 2027-02; C1, largest shortfall 510 units in 2027-02.
Gaps: demand the supply plan cannot cover
A1 Large planter
Balance by period, confirmed demand: 2026-12 350; 2027-01 300; 2027-02 300.
Balance by period, likely demand: 2026-12 200; 2027-01 0; 2027-02 -200.
Balance by period, with sales ambition: 2026-12 100; 2027-01 -200; 2027-02 -550.
Confirmed demand: covered, lowest balance 300 in 2027-01.
Likely demand: first short 2027-02, largest shortfall 200 in 2027-02. Below safety stock of 150 first in 2027-01.
Sales ambition: 350 units over the periods; first short 2027-01, largest shortfall 550 in 2027-02.
Supply requested, not confirmed: 100 in 2027-01 from Own production. Largest likely shortfall if all were confirmed: 100 in 2027-02.
Capacity room by period: 2026-12 50; 2027-01 0; 2027-02 100.
C1 Self-watering insert
Balance by period, confirmed demand: 2026-12 120; 2027-01 40; 2027-02 -20.
Balance by period, likely demand: 2026-12 120; 2027-01 40; 2027-02 -20.
Balance by period, with sales ambition: 2026-12 -80; 2027-01 -310; 2027-02 -510.
Confirmed demand: first short 2027-02, largest shortfall 20 in 2027-02.
Likely demand: first short 2027-02, largest shortfall 20 in 2027-02. Below safety stock of 60 first in 2027-01.
Sales ambition: 490 units over the periods; first short 2026-12, largest shortfall 510 in 2027-02. Supported units moved to ambition for lack of a basis: 40 in 2027-02.
Supply requested, not confirmed: 100 in 2027-01 from Supplier A. Largest likely shortfall if all were confirmed: none.
Capacity room by period: 2026-12 0; 2027-01 50; 2027-02 150.
Inventory implications
A1: below safety stock from 2027-01 (balance 0 against 150), then short by 200 in 2027-02.
C1: below safety stock from 2027-01 (balance 40 against 60), then short by 20 in 2027-02.
A2: excess. Likely balance in 2027-02 is 800 against an allowance of 500 (safety stock 200 plus average monthly likely demand 300): 300 units over, $3,450 at $11.50 a unit.
No other item is below safety stock or holds excess.
Not tested
None.
Decisions needed from each function head
Sales head (4)
1. A1. Likely demand exceeds confirmed supply by 200 units in 2027-02; confirmed demand is covered. Supported units for A1 are 150, 150 and 200 across the three periods. Do those supported units still stand, and if supply stays as it is, whose supported volume is met first?
2. C1. Confirmed orders exceed supply by 20 units in 2027-02 (60 units confirmed, none supplied; the 40 units left over from 2027-01 cover part of them). Could any of the confirmed C1 orders for 2027-02 be met in a later period?
3. C1. The 40 supported units in 2027-02 have no basis in the demand plan, so they are counted as sales ambition. What is the basis for them, or should they stay as ambition?
4. A1 and C1. Sales ambition is 350 units for A1 and 490 for C1 and is untested against any order or stated basis. If it were added, A1 would be short by 550 units and C1 by 510, both in 2027-02. Should any of it be given a basis and counted as supported demand? (A2 also carries 100 ambition units and stays covered.)
Production lead (2)
5. A1. Confirmed production is 250, 200 and 200 units; 100 more is requested for 2027-01. Capacity is 300 a month, so the room left is 50, 0 and 100 units. If the request were confirmed, the largest likely shortfall would be 100 units in 2027-02. Can the 100 requested units for 2027-01 be confirmed, and can production in 2027-02 go above the 200 now confirmed, up to the stated 300?
6. A2. Confirmed production is 300, 300 and 200 units. With 900 on hand, the likely balance in 2027-02 is 800. Do the confirmed A2 runs stay as they are?
Purchasing lead (1)
7. C1. Confirmed supply is 100 units in 2026-12 and none after; 100 units from Supplier A are requested for 2027-01. Capacity leaves room of 0, 50 and 150 units. If the request were confirmed the likely balances would be 120, 140 and 80. Can the January request be confirmed, and is any supply to be requested for 2027-02? Earlier decision D07 covers the January request.
Finance lead (1)
8. A2. The likely balance in 2027-02 is 300 units over the allowance, worth $3,450 at unit cost. Is that stock acceptable to carry through the periods covered?
Carried from earlier reviews
D07, C1, Ask Supplier A for a firm January delivery, Purchasing lead, due 2026-11-27, open. The January supply for C1 is still marked requested (100 units), not confirmed. The due date is before the review date.
Decisions recorded as done: 1.
Check lines
Confirmed demand: opening 1,720 + confirmed supply 2,000 - confirmed demand 2,040 = 1,680, the sum of the closing balances.
Likely demand: opening 1,720 + confirmed supply 2,000 - likely demand 2,990 = 730, the sum of the closing balances.
Draft for the Operations lead. Nothing has been ordered, promised, sent or changed. Each function head decides their own response.
Where it fits
- Supply chain & inventory, where the planning cycle lives.
- Operations & process improvement, for the operations lead who runs the monthly meeting.
- Manufacturing, where capacity limits and confirmed material decide what can be made.
- E-commerce & retail, where sales plans and stock commitments meet every month.
- Consumer brands, where promotions raise demand before supply is confirmed.
- Growth & scaling, when sales ambition starts to outrun what suppliers and production can deliver.
- Established businesses, where the monthly meeting already exists and needs a shared page.
What has to change for your company
Name your function heads and the month the review covers. Decide which sales reasons count as a basis for supported demand, and who decides that. Set your excess allowance; the starting rule is safety stock plus an average month of likely demand. Agree what your suppliers' confirmation looks like, so that "confirmed" means the same thing to everyone. Keep one export layout for each file so the headers match every month.
What has been checked
Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 10 November 2026. It was tried on its invented example in Claude on 10 November 2026, and the run was repeated after corrections by the model that made them, so it is not independent of the example; the record is published with it. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.
Testing in your environment means running it on a past month your team already knows, with cases written in advance: a confirmed order the supply cannot meet, a supplier request that is not confirmed, supported units with no reason given, an item with no stock row. The operations lead checks every balance against a hand calculation before anyone relies on it. Pilot acceptance-test preparation sets those cases up, and what we test before we call an AI workflow ready describes the record we keep.
The full capability template
Everything above is the outline. The complete capability template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.
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