Unconstrained Need Units is a metric that shows how many units a location would need each week if there were no limit on available inventory upstream. It runs alongside your normal, constrained allocation and appears right next to your existing metrics — so you can compare "what I can actually ship" against "what I'd ship if supply weren't the bottleneck" without building a separate model.
Use Cases
You want to size purchase orders or a longer-range shipment forecast based on true demand, not on what your current sources happen to have on hand.
You're deciding whether a shortfall in your constrained allocation is a supply problem or a demand problem — Unconstrained Need Units tells you what the location actually needs, independent of what's available to send it.
You need an unconstrained view of demand to share downstream (for example, feeding a longer-horizon shipment forecast) while keeping your day-to-day allocation numbers untouched.
What Unconstrained Need Units Shows You
Unconstrained Need Units answers a simple question for each location and week: if supply were unlimited, how many units would this location need to stay at its target stock level?
It applies the same rules your constrained allocation already uses — safety stock, minimum presentation, order cycle, and order multiples — but assumes each location's source can always fully replenish it. The result is a "clean" need number that isn't reduced by a source running low on inventory.
This is a projection only. Turning it on:
Does not create or change any Recommended Transfer Orders.
Does not change any of your existing constrained allocation numbers.
Simply adds a new number alongside what's already there, so the two can be compared on the same row.
Where You'll Find It
Once enabled, Unconstrained Need Units shows up as a standard metric you can add to your views — alongside metrics like Effective Safety Stock Units and Ideal Stock Units (see Allocation Exception Metrics):
On the
Allocation Plangrid, at the location/SKU/week level.On
AP MetricsandSize Plan, rolled up to the choice level and, where applicable, the choice + size level.
[Screenshot: Unconstrained Need Units column added to the Allocation Plan metric picker, shown next to Effective Safety Stock Units]
How Far Out It Projects
Unconstrained Need Units can look further into the future than your regular allocation horizon, since it isn't limited by what your sources can actually supply. Toolio Support configures how many weeks ahead this projection runs for your account, based on your forecast horizon.
Because of this, you may see weeks near the end of the horizon where Unconstrained Need Units has a value but your usual constrained metrics don't — that's expected. It just means those weeks are further out than your constrained allocation currently plans for.
Turning On Unconstrained Need Units
Unconstrained Need Units is controlled by a feature flag and is off by default. Contact your Customer Success Manager or Toolio Support to have it turned on for your account — once it's enabled, the metric becomes available to add to your views like any other metric, no other setup is required on your end.
💡 For administrators: availability is controlled by the isCalculateUnconstrainedOrdersEnabled feature flag, which is off by default. See Feature Flags in Toolio for how flags work and how to preview one before requesting it.
FAQs
Does this change my Recommended Transfer Orders or existing allocation numbers?
No. Unconstrained Need Units is a projection that runs alongside your allocation and only adds a new metric — it doesn't create, modify, or remove any transfer orders, and none of your existing constrained metrics change.
Why does a future week show Unconstrained Need Units but nothing else?
Unconstrained Need Units can project further out than your constrained allocation horizon. Weeks beyond your regular allocation window will show only this metric until they fall inside the constrained horizon.
Can I see this at the size level, not just the choice level?
Yes, where size-level data is available it rolls up to the choice + size grain as well as the choice level, so it can appear in Size Plan in addition to AP Metrics.
Is this the same as running a what-if scenario?
Not quite. Unconstrained Need Units is a single, always-on projection based on your current setup — it's not an interactive scenario you configure per run. Think of it as a standing "unlimited supply" companion number next to your real allocation.