Skiprs Collaborative planning layer Book a 30-minute call

For hardware companies that build at contract manufacturers

Given what you plan to build, what do you need to buy, and by when?

Skiprs explodes your build plan through the BOM, nets it against every source of supply bucket by bucket, finds the first week each part runs out, and works back through lead time and PO approval turn-around to the date the order has to leave. One status and one buy-by date per part.

Book a 30-minute call What it answers Three design-partner slots · no charge during the pilot
INSTANT UPDATING Company Projects Systems Data Market Data no — not yet yes builds rescheduled when the CM is the bottleneck POs placed and received material transferred RE-PLANNING EXECUTION Forecast Forecast Rework Supply Actions Plan Execute Supply Inputs Can it be done? every part, in every week On HandON Online InventoryOFF Preferred Mfr LTON asked against exactly what you choose to count
One question, two halves. Say not yet and you go left, into re-planning — buy what can be bought, move the build where it cannot. Say yes and you go right, into execution. Either way you come back and ask again, against exactly the supply you chose to count.

What you actually look at

One status and one buy-by date per part.

The loop above resolves to this: a shortage list you can work top to bottom, where every number traces back to a rule you set.

Shortage Report

Example data Baseline · Cycle #47 · Eff. LT mode D
First short
W4
2 Nov 2026
Buy by this week
6
of 38 short
Sourcing-gated
3
open readiness path
CPNs in window
412
9 BOMs · 3 sites
StatusCPNDescriptionFirst shortBuy byBuy qtyEff. LT
Too late C-1203Cap, 100 nF X7R 0402 W421 Sep 2026 25,00012 w
Order now J-2041Connector, FFC 20-pos 0.5 mm W919 Oct 2026 5,0006 w
Sourcing-gated A-0075Enclosure, machined 6061 — under RFQ W11— —9 w + chain
Missing LT R-0310Resistor, 0.1 % 0402 W6— —88 w default
Ample time U-1180MCU, 32-bit 64-pin W1414 Dec 2026 2,50020 w
Covered D-0442Diode, Schottky 40 V —— —8 w

Right-click a shortage to raise an Action · quantities respect MOQ and MPQ · every number traces to its rule

What it answers, at any moment

Five questions a buyer has to answer every week.

Traditional MRP forces a single forecast, a single inventory set and a single truth. Skiprs lets you hold several supply scenarios, demand assumptions and planning rules side by side, without touching source data.

When am I short?

Material bottlenecks and shortages across the full planning horizon, together with the buildable output each bottleneck allows.

Based on which assumptions?

Every shortage view is tied to an explicit set of data and planning assumptions — your own session, a saved scenario, or the shared baseline. The basis of every recommendation stays visible and auditable.

Can I act on it yet?

Readiness and purchase authorization travel with the part, so the plan separates a part that is short from a part that is short and not yet buyable.

Which actions should I take?

A purchase list with precise buy timing and quantity options — and the alternatives to buying: transfers between locations, distributor availability, pulling in or pushing out the orders you already placed.

What is the financial impact?

Forward-looking spend, inventory valuation and cost roll-ups on the same plan, so the buy decision and its cost are never two different spreadsheets.

The core differentiator

The Switchboard: decide what counts, before the engine runs.

Before anything is calculated, you choose which supply sources count, which demand rows are in scope and which planning rules apply:

  • 01Which on-hand, on-order and distributor sources and snapshots are included — down to location, sub-location and individual line.
  • 02Which forecast plan and snapshot drive demand, and which individual rows are switched on.
  • 03Whether late POs, inventory floors and make-stock netting count.
  • 04How lead time is built up, and which budget assumptions apply.

None of this changes source data. Every choice is local to your session until you save it as a named scenario — which you can keep private, share with a colleague, or submit for approval as the new baseline.

Two buyers in the same environment can hold entirely different configurations at the same time with no interference. Recalculation is explicit: changes are collected and applied when you ask for them, never silently.

That is the planning governance layer a spreadsheet cannot give you, and the reason the same shortage list means the same thing to two people.

How it fits together

The data is frozen once. The plan is iterated against it.

Four systems that rarely exchange data well, reconciled into one dataset the team shares — and then a loop you run until the build plan actually holds.

PLM BOMs, revisions, phase ERP on hand, open orders Contract manufacturers their stock, their POs Distributors availability, off by default Import Cycle immutable snapshots · ledgers stamped · source files kept · nothing written back Baseline the dataset the whole team shares FROZEN ONCE PER CYCLE ITERATED IN YOUR SESSION ↓ selects from Forecast what you plan to build assembly × qty × week Switchboard which sources, rows and rules count MRP engine explode · net · first short back out to Buy By Shortage Report Purchase List one status per part demand config results Actions new buys, pull-ins, transfers, plugs push buys count as supply at once or change the plan — later bucket, split the row, re-rank Iterate on Calculated CTB — what is realistic today, given current constraints, Actions and plugs. when the plan holds Freeze the plan Target CTB becomes the commitment to deliver
Above the dashed line, nothing moves. Each import creates immutable snapshots and stamps the ledgers, so every calculation that cycle reads one consistent dataset, and Skiprs never writes back to your PLM or ERP. Below it, everything is yours to try. You work on Calculated CTB to see what is realistic given current constraints, Actions and plugs, iterate until the plan holds — then freeze it, and Target CTB carries the frozen plan as the commitment the team must deliver. Your drafts count in your own calculation immediately; they count for everyone once activated.

One status per part

Six colors, one meaning each, in a fixed order.

The same label set appears on every screen and every export, and a part carries exactly one status. Where two could apply, the order below decides.

StatusMeaning
Missing LTNo lead time on record anywhere. Overrides everything, because an unknown lead time is the bigger problem.
Sourcing-gatedShort, and it carries an open readiness path — a qualification step or an open RFQ — that will not clear in time.
Too lateThe buy-by date has passed. Ordering today still misses the build.
Order nowThe buy-by date falls in the current bucket. This is this week's list.
Ample timeShort later, and the buy-by date is still ahead of you.
CoveredNo shortage and no floor breach anywhere in the window.
Supply, no demandStock or orders with nothing consuming them. Not urgent, but worth knowing.

Who this is for

It fits a particular kind of company.

  • ●Multi-level BOMs with highly engineered custom assemblies going into a box build.
  • ●Long-lead electronic and custom parts that need purchase commitments months before production — often before the design is fully released.
  • ●Fluid product structures, where engineering iterations run in parallel with sourcing decisions.
  • ●Contract manufacturers in production, which splits inventory responsibility between you and them.
  • ●No dedicated ERP/MRP — or one that was never designed for components consigned to a CM, leaving a planning gap that spreadsheets fill today.

Skiprs sits between four parties that rarely exchange data well: your PLM, your ERP, your contract manufacturers, and the buyers who have to decide faster than any of them can answer.

How it behaves

Principles, not preferences.

  • P1Imported data is preserved. Nothing is overwritten in place. Every import creates an immutable snapshot, kept indefinitely, with the source file attached.
  • P2Skiprs never writes back to your systems. PLM and ERP stay the systems of record. Skiprs consumes, reconciles and plans on top of them.
  • P6Every result is explainable. Each shortage signal, buy quantity, color and figure traces back to the session, the import cycle, the values and the rule that produced it.
  • P8The planner stays in control. Skiprs recommends; you decide. It never places a buy, never re-ranks a source and never promotes your what-if to the shared plan.
  • P10It feels like a spreadsheet. Inline editing, copy and paste, fill, undo, multi-row selection, sum footers, CSV and Excel export, and keyboard navigation you already know.
  • P7The engine is deterministic. Same inputs, same configuration, same date — same numbers, proven color-for-color against the trackers it replaces.

Design partners

Looking for three hardware teams to build this with.

What you get

  • Your own BOM and stock loaded by us, not by you
  • A weekly session while the engine is being built
  • Direct influence on what gets built next
  • No charge during the pilot

What we need

  • Four exports and a mutual NDA
  • One buyer who will tell us when a number looks wrong
  • An hour a week for six weeks
Book a 30-minute call or write to aurelien@skiprs.com