About production potential

See how many units you can make from the materials you have right now

Not sure if you have enough materials to fill your next batch? Production Potential shows you the maximum number of units you could manufacture today — calculated automatically from your recipe and current stock on hand.

Production Potential is a stock indicator that answers a simple question: given everything you currently have on the shelf, how many units of this product could you make? It works by reading your product's recipe and checking how much of each material is available, then calculating the maximum number of complete units you could produce.

Values are calculated in the background and update automatically whenever your stock levels or recipes change.

In this article:

• How production potential is calculated
• Where production potential appears
• How it works with components
• Loading indicators and refresh timing
• Products with no recipe
• FAQ

How production potential is calculated

The app looks at your product's recipe and checks the current stock on hand for each material listed as an ingredient. For each ingredient, it divides your available stock by the quantity required per batch, then takes the lowest result across all ingredients — because you can only make as many units as your most constrained material allows.

For example, if your recipe calls for 100g of beeswax and 10ml of fragrance oil per unit, and you have 500g of beeswax and 40ml of fragrance oil, the potential is:

• Beeswax: 500 ÷ 100 = 5 units
• Fragrance oil: 40 ÷ 10 = 4 units

Your production potential would be 4 units — limited by the fragrance oil.

Where production potential appears

Potential stock values are visible in three areas of the app:

• Products page — a Potential column appears in the products list. For products that have variations, the column shows the combined potential across all active variations.

  

• Product detail page — the stock levels panel includes a Potential row alongside On Hand, Committed, and Available.
• Variations — each variation has its own Potential value, visible on the variations list and on a variation's detail page. Variations use the variation's own recipe if one exists, or fall back to the parent product's recipe.
• Components — the stock levels panel on a component's detail page includes a Potential row, showing how many units of the component you could make.

How it works with components

If your recipe includes components (sub-assemblies that are themselves made from materials), the app calculates potential recursively. It considers both your current stock of the component and how many additional units of that component could be made from raw materials on hand.

For example, if your recipe calls for two units of a "Wax Blend" component, and you have one unit of Wax Blend on hand plus enough raw materials to make three more, the effective supply for that ingredient is four units. This means you'd be able to make two finished products from that component.

Loading indicators and refresh timing

Production potential is calculated in the background by a worker process, not in real time. When you load a page, the app checks whether the cached value is fresh (calculated within the last minute). If it's stale, a recalculation is queued and the value refreshes automatically once ready — you don't need to reload the page.

While a value is being recalculated, the cell may briefly show a loading indicator. This is expected behaviour, particularly immediately after you've updated a recipe or adjusted stock levels.

Recalculation is also triggered automatically whenever:

• You add, change, or remove an ingredient in a recipe
• You adjust the stock level of a material used in a recipe

Products with no recipe

If a product has no recipe, the app can't calculate a production potential — there's no list of ingredients to check. In this case, the Potential value shows a dash (—).

To see a production potential for a product, add a recipe that lists the materials and quantities needed to make it.

FAQ

Why is my production potential showing zero?

A value of zero means your recipe has at least one ingredient with no stock on hand. Check your material stock levels to see which ingredient has run out — it only takes one empty material to bring the potential to zero.

Does production potential account for pending purchase orders?

No. Production potential only considers current stock on hand. Materials on order but not yet received are not included in the calculation.

My product has variations — why does the Products page show a combined number?

When a product has active variations, the Potential column on the Products page shows the sum of potential across all active variations. You can see the individual potential for each variation by opening the product's Variations page.

Can I use production potential to plan a manufacture?

Production potential gives you a useful upper bound — the maximum you could make if you used all available materials for this product. When you're ready to run a manufacture, enter the specific quantity you want to produce.

Why can't I see production potential on my account?

Production Potential is available on the Indie plan and above. If you don't see the Potential column or value, check your current plan — you may need to upgrade to access this feature. View plan options.

Need Help?

Still have questions about production potential? Get in touch with Support and we'll be happy to help.