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| Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
|---|---|---|
| Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | - | 
Apr 1, 2026 |
Business value
Many trade and distribution companies use locations but don't maintain SKUs. Previously, the planning engine applied minimal parameters and reset order modifiers like minimum order quantity, maximum order quantity, and order multiple to zero. This produced planning suggestions that didn't match what users configured on the item. With the new Missing SKU Planning Policy field on locations, you can specify how the planning engine handles missing settings. For example, should it respect the item card parameters or exclude specific locations from planning altogether? The SKU Creation Policy complements this by preventing accidental SKU creation at locations where SKU-level management isn't needed.
Feature details
Two new fields on the Location Card give you per-location control over SKU-related behavior during supply planning and SKU creation.
When the planning system detects demand at a location, it checks whether a SKU exists for the item at that location. If a SKU exists, the item is planned according to planning parameters on the SKU card. This behavior is unchanged. If no SKU exists, the system previously fell back to a fixed set of rules based on the Components at Location field on the Manufacturing Setup page. Learn more at Planning with or without locations. In many cases, the fallback produced a minimal alternative with a reordering policy set to Lot-for-Lot, the Include Inventory field set to Yes, and all other planning parameters empty. This behavior, while safe and accurate, was hard to explain.
The new Missing SKU Planning Policy field on the Location Card page lets you choose what happens when no SKU exists. You can preserve the original behavior, use the item card parameters instead, or skip planning entirely for that location.
Missing SKU Planning Policy
When the planning system detects demand at a location, it checks for a SKU in the following sequence. The Missing SKU Planning Policy field determines what happens at step 2 when no SKU exists. If it finds a SKU, the item is planned according to planning parameters on the SKU card. This is the same for all three policy values. If it doesn't find a SKU, it checks the Missing SKU Planning Policy field on the demand location. What happens next depends on the policy value, as described in the following table.
| Policy value | System behavior |
|---|---|
| Minimal (default) | This policy preserves the existing behavior described in Planning with or without locations: - If the Components at Location field in Manufacturing Setup equals the demand location, the item is planned according to planning parameters on the item card. - If Components at Location differs from the demand location and the Reordering Policy on the item card is Order, the item is planned according to planning parameters on the item card. Items using the reordering policy Order continue to use the policy and the other settings. - Otherwise, the item is planned according to the minimal alternative where the Reordering Policy is set to Lot-for-Lot, Include Inventory is Yes, and all other planning parameters are empty. |
| Item Card | The item is planned according to planning parameters on the item card, regardless of the Components at Location setting. The system creates a temporary SKU by copying planning parameters from the item for the planning run. It logs an entry on the Planning Error Log page, noting that planning parameters were taken from the item card because the SKU doesn't exist. |
| Don't Plan | The system skips planning for the item at this location entirely, similar to what happens when the Reordering Policy field is blank on the item or SKU. It logs an entry on the Planning Error Log page, noting that the item wasn't planned because the SKU doesn't exist and the Missing SKU Planning Policy is set to Don't Plan. |
Note
The Don't Plan setting takes priority over the Components at Location field on the Manufacturing Setup page. Even if Components at Location equals the demand location, the item isn't planned when the policy is Don't Plan.
SKU Creation Policy field
This field controls whether stockkeeping units can be created for the location. The field complements the Missing SKU Planning Policy field by preventing people from accidentally creating SKUs at locations where SKU-level management isn't needed. The following table describes the available options.
| Field value | System behavior |
|---|---|
| Allowed (default) | You can create SKUs manually. The Create Stockkeeping Unit report (5706) creates SKUs for this location. |
| Blocked | You can't create SKUs manually for this location. The Create Stockkeeping Unit report skips this location silently. |
Blocking applies only to real (persisted) SKUs. Temporary SKUs that the planning engine creates internally aren't affected.
Geographic areas
Visit the Explore Feature Geography report for Microsoft Azure areas where this feature is planned or available.
Language availability
Visit the Explore Feature Language report for information on this feature's availability.
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