Inventory allocation

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Inventory allocation

WebSphere Commerce supports four inventory systems:

Available to promise (ATP)
non-ATP
no inventory
external inventory

The interface to inventory is encapsulated by a single inventory task command, which in turn invokes the appropriate task commands.
The four inventory systems apply to the following situations:

ATP inventory Allocate stock from existing inventory or backorder from expected inventory.
You can also obtain an estimated availability time for each order item once it has been added into the shopping cart. The ATP also supports allocating stocks for future order processing.
Non-ATP inventory Inventory operations are only based on existing on-hand inventory.
No inventory Assume all products have infinite quantities.
When the products in a store are virtual products, digital downloadable products, or electronic assets, such as downloadable images or music, you can use this model.
The no inventory model has three typical characteristics which differentiate it from the other inventory models:

All products have unlimited available quantities. Any check of inventory always returns a positive result.

Since all products have infinite available quantities, all order items are successfully allocated after an 'allocate inventory' operation.
Specifically, the INVENTORYSTATUS column of the ORDERITEMS table is always set to 'ALLC'.

The No inventory system does not support...

RTF (Release to Fulfillment)
Pick batch
Ship Confirmation

Order management functions can be supported with custom integration with an existing order management system.

External Inventory Used for Websphere Commerce and some external inventory systems integration.
For integration with other inventory systems, you might select ATP, non-ATP, or No-inventory inventory system based on the specific inventory system and integration scenario.

The WebSphere Commerce system uses a configuration flag to determine which set of interfaces to use. The ALLOCATIONGOODFOR column in the STORE database table, which was previously used to distinguish ATP from non-ATP inventory and to define the expiration time of the inventory allocation, has now only the latter use. The INVENTORYSYSTEM column in the STORE database has values:

-1 ATP inventory
-2 Non-ATP inventory
-3 No inventory
-4 External Inventory

See also

Available to promise (ATP) inventory allocation
ATP inventory consists of on-hand inventory minus reserved inventory and inventory allocated for backorders. ATP inventory is the inventory that is available to fulfill orders.

Enable a store to use available-to-promise (ATP) inventory
During the process of publishing a store, the developer can enable the store to use the available-to-promise (ATP) inventory capabilities. For stores, the developer can choose to enable ATP or not, except for the demand chain reseller hosted store.

Related concepts

Available to promise (ATP) inventory allocation
Inventory

Related tasks

Enable a store to use available-to-promise (ATP) inventory

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ATP inventory	Allocate stock from existing inventory or backorder from expected inventory. You can also obtain an estimated availability time for each order item once it has been added into the shopping cart. The ATP also supports allocating stocks for future order processing.
Non-ATP inventory	Inventory operations are only based on existing on-hand inventory.
No inventory	Assume all products have infinite quantities. When the products in a store are virtual products, digital downloadable products, or electronic assets, such as downloadable images or music, you can use this model. The no inventory model has three typical characteristics which differentiate it from the other inventory models: All products have unlimited available quantities. Any check of inventory always returns a positive result. Since all products have infinite available quantities, all order items are successfully allocated after an 'allocate inventory' operation. Specifically, the INVENTORYSTATUS column of the ORDERITEMS table is always set to 'ALLC'. The No inventory system does not support... RTF (Release to Fulfillment) Pick batch Ship Confirmation Order management functions can be supported with custom integration with an existing order management system.
External Inventory	Used for Websphere Commerce and some external inventory systems integration. For integration with other inventory systems, you might select ATP, non-ATP, or No-inventory inventory system based on the specific inventory system and integration scenario.