# Fundamentals

## Overview

The Inventory Replenisher is an AI-powered Digital Worker designed to free inventory planners from the repetitive work of processing purchase requisitions so they can focus on the strategic supply management that actually requires human expertise. It continuously monitors ERP systems, validates supplier data, applies configured business rules, and automatically converts purchase requisitions into purchase orders, ensuring material availability while minimizing carrying costs and stockouts.

By transforming manual, reactive replenishment into an intelligent, autonomous process, the Inventory Replenisher gives planners time back for strategic sourcing, supplier relationship building, demand planning, and category management. This is work that requires human judgment, negotiation skills, and strategic thinking.

## Key Benefits

**Automated requisition processing:** Purchase requisition lines in planned status are evaluated, validated, and converted to purchase orders automatically when all configured conditions are met, without any manual review required for clean lines.

**Consistent rule enforcement:** Business rules for supplier validity, minimum order quantities, price thresholds, and freight grouping are applied the same way every time, eliminating the inconsistency that comes from different planners making different judgment calls on routine processing.

**Proactive exception visibility:** Lines that don't meet processing conditions are flagged immediately with specific reasons, giving planners clear visibility into what needs attention and why, rather than discovering problems downstream.

**Freight load optimization:** When multiple requisitions exist for the same supplier, the system intelligently groups orders to minimize partial shipments and reduce transportation costs automatically.

**Continuous background operation:** The Digital Worker runs on a configured schedule, hourly, daily, weekly, or event-triggered, processing requisition lines in the background without requiring planners to initiate or monitor the run.

## The Challenge It Solves

Inventory replenishment is often reactive and manual. Planners must validate suppliers, apply supplier-specific rules, and convert requisitions into purchase orders across systems, a process that requires checking each line individually against multiple conditions before anything can be actioned. Disconnected systems and inconsistent rule application lead to delays, supply risks, excess inventory, and limited visibility into what has been processed versus what is still pending.

In practice, this means planners are spending time on tasks like retrieving planned PR lines from IFS Cloud, reviewing each line against supplier rules and MOQ requirements, determining which lines can be actioned, manually converting valid PRs to POs, updating the ERP, and managing exceptions, all work that is repetitive, rules-based, and consumes time that could be spent on strategic decisions.

## Before and After

### Before

Before the Inventory Replenisher, processing a batch of purchase requisition lines requires manual effort at every step:

<br>

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
Retrieve PR lines from IFS Cloud
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Review each PR line individually
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Review supplier rules on a per-line basis
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Determine supplier guidelines and applicability
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Convert valid PRs to purchase orders
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Update the ERP
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Manage exceptions separately
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

This process is reactive, prone to inconsistency, and typically takes 30 to 45 minutes per processing run, time that compounds across daily or weekly replenishment cycles.

### After

With the Inventory Replenisher, the same cycle runs in three automated steps:

{% stepper %}
{% step %}
Retrieve and review PR lines automatically
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Apply supplier rules and business conditions
{% endstep %}

{% step %}
Create purchase orders for valid lines and route exceptions to planners
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

Valid lines are processed without any human involvement. Invalid lines are flagged with clear reasons. The entire run that previously took 30 to 45 minutes happens in under a minute.

## How It Works

The Inventory Replenisher executes a five-step automated workflow that handles the complete replenishment cycle from requisition identification through purchase order creation.

**Requisition Line Identification:** The Digital Worker queries all purchase requisition lines in planned status within a defined timeframe, typically the last 24 hours. It retrieves planned requisitions based on latest order date, filters by configured date range, applies processing limits (default 20 lines, configurable to thousands), and extracts key attributes including supplier information, part numbers, quantities, prices, and delivery requirements.

**Supplier Validation and Grouping:** Before processing any orders, the system confirms each supplier is active and approved, validates that suppliers are properly connected to the relevant company and site, organizes requisition lines by supplier number to enable consolidated processing, and verifies that expected delivery timelines are available and reasonable.

**Condition Evaluation and Business Rules:** The system applies customizable business rules to determine which lines should be released. These include supplier-specific validation criteria, minimum order quantity requirements, price thresholds to validate that line totals or order values fall within acceptable ranges, supplier exclusions to automatically reject requisitions from blocked suppliers, and freight load considerations to optimize order groupings and reduce transportation costs.

**Release and Purchase Order Creation:** Valid lines are automatically released from planned to released status in IFS Cloud, and complete purchase orders are generated. Invalid lines are flagged with specific reasons logged. Exception notifications are sent via Teams, Slack, or email for any lines requiring manual review. A complete audit trail of all decisions, validations, and actions is maintained for compliance and analysis.

**Continuous Monitoring:** The Digital Worker runs on a configured schedule, daily, hourly, weekly, or event-triggered, continuously processing in the background without requiring planner initiation.


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