A practical guide to OTIF metrics planned purchase risk Power BI analysis and the limits of the workspace.
The Supply Risk Assessment workspace is useful when the question is specific. Which planned purchases are exposed because a vendor or product has missed delivery expectations before? Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management answers that question by linking historical purchase order performance to future planned supply.
The name can make the feature sound broader than it is. It does not continuously monitor a supplier's finances, cybersecurity, compliance position or exposure to geopolitical and environmental events. It also does not assess risk from production supply. Microsoft describes the current capability as supplier delivery performance analysis and risk assessment for planned purchases.
That narrower scope is still useful. Procurement teams already hold evidence about requested dates, confirmed dates, receipts and quantities inside Dynamics 365. The workspace turns those records into on-time, in-full and on-time in-full measures, then uses the pattern to show where future supply may be at risk. The result is a practical place to start a sourcing conversation, provided the underlying transaction data is reliable and the limits of the calculation are understood.
Three key takeaways
- 1.The workspace measures delivery risk rather than every supplier risk. Its evidence comes from purchase order performance and planned supply, not external financial, compliance, cyber or geopolitical data.
- 2.OTIF quality depends on transaction quality. Requested dates, confirmed dates, receipts, quantities, vendors and master planning data must reflect what actually happened.
- 3.A risk signal needs an operational response. Procurement and planning teams must decide when to diversify supply, change an order, revise a route or accept the exposure.
What the workspace actually measures
Microsoft first released the supply risk assessment capability in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management version 10.0.31. It focuses on delivery performance by suppliers and products. The workspace brings together actionable lists and embedded Power BI reports so supply managers can move from a summary measure to the purchase orders, vendors and products behind it.
The Overview tab is filtered by the legal entity currently selected in Dynamics 365. Its key insight tiles include late confirmed purchase order lines, deliveries that were not on time, deliveries that were not in full and planned items assigned to a single vendor. The details area then shows products and vendors that did not meet the configured OTIF expectation.
The Performance and Risk tabs provide the deeper analysis. Performance reporting looks back at historic purchase order receipts and ranks suppliers or products using delivery measures. Risk reporting maps those observations onto planned purchase orders so users can review the quantity and financial amount that may be exposed if the same performance continues.
The three workspace views
- Overview What it shows: Late confirmations, orders not received on time or in full, single-sourced items and direct links to related Dynamics 365 records.. How a team can use it: Find exceptions quickly and move from a metric to the product, vendor or planned order that needs review.
- Performance What it shows: Historic supplier and product performance using requested dates, confirmed dates, on-time, in-full and OTIF measures.. How a team can use it: Compare performance by legal entity, vendor, product, region, item group, delivery method or site and investigate trends or outliers.
- Risk What it shows: Calculated exposure for planned purchases, including risk expressed as planned quantity and amount.. How a team can use it: Prioritise planned supply for review and test whether a different vendor, location or delivery method changes the exposure.
The Power BI filters remain active as users move between report pages, which makes it easier to investigate the same vendor or product from several perspectives.
How OTIF becomes a supply risk signal
On-time in-full, usually shortened to OTIF, asks whether an order line arrived by the expected date and in the expected quantity. Dynamics 365 also separates the measure into on-time and in-full rates. Another measure compares the requested receipt date with the confirmed receipt date returned by the vendor. Together, these figures show different reasons why supply may be unreliable.
A late confirmation is an early warning that a supplier cannot meet the requested date. An on-time failure records what happened at receipt. An in-full failure shows that the quantity received did not meet the expectation. OTIF is stricter because the line must satisfy both delivery conditions. Looking at all four measures prevents one acceptable average from hiding a recurring problem.
The Risk view then applies historical observations to planned purchase orders. This is a forecast based on past delivery behaviour, not a prediction of every event that could interrupt supply. It is most useful when the products, vendors, routes and operating conditions represented in the history remain relevant to the plan. A supplier that has changed capacity, location or delivery terms may need a separate review before its earlier performance is treated as evidence of future risk.
The second original article image illustrates the transport and sourcing choices that may sit behind a supply risk response.
What procurement teams can do with the result
A risk score is useful only when it changes a decision. The workspace can highlight a planned item that relies on one poorly performing vendor or show that a delivery method has repeatedly missed the required date. Procurement can then investigate an alternative supplier, revise the requested date, change the delivery method, source from another location or discuss a recovery plan with the vendor.
The right action depends on business context that the workspace does not hold. A low-value component can still stop production. A vendor with poor OTIF may be the only approved source. Holding more stock may protect service but increase working capital and obsolescence risk. The Power BI analysis helps teams find and size the exposure. Supply managers, planners, finance and operations still need to agree how much resilience is worth paying for.
After changing the plan, Microsoft recommends reassessing the risk. This creates a useful discipline. Teams can compare the exposure before and after changing the source, location or shipping method instead of assuming that an intervention has solved the problem.
Configuration and data refresh
The feature needs configuration before the numbers should be used operationally. Microsoft provides default thresholds of 96 percent for requested-date acceptance, in-full, on-time and OTIF rates. A default is only a starting point. The threshold for an imported production component may need to differ from the threshold for a readily available indirect item, and the response should reflect lead time, substitute availability and business impact.
- 1.Set the performance thresholds. Use Supply risk assessment parameters to define the minimum rates that your organisation treats as acceptable.
- 2.Open the workspace after enabling it. This makes the required data cache configuration available in the environment.
- 3.Enable the workspace data cache. The VendSupplyRiskCacheDataSet consumer controls whether workspace data is kept current and whether manual refresh is available.
- 4.Refresh the Purchase cube. The embedded Power BI reports depend on analytics entity store data and should have an appropriate automatic refresh schedule.
- 5.Test the result against known orders. Before relying on the dashboard, reconcile a sample of requested dates, confirmations, receipts and quantities with the source transactions.
Data quality questions worth resolving
Supplier performance reporting exposes process habits as well as supplier behaviour. If buyers replace the original confirmed date whenever a vendor delays an order, the record may no longer show how far the delivery moved from the first commitment. If receipts are posted late or against the wrong line, the on-time measure can blame the supplier for an internal processing delay. Returns, partial receipts and unit conversions also need consistent treatment.
Master planning adds another control. The Power BI risk report includes a master plan selector. Users should choose one plan so planned orders from several plans are not counted together. Legal entity filters also matter because the Overview workspace reflects the currently selected company, while the embedded reports can be analysed across configured dimensions.
A Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management assessment should therefore cover the transaction rules behind the metric. Who owns requested and confirmed dates? When can a date be changed? How are partial receipts recorded? Which master plan is authoritative? Which threshold should trigger action? Without agreed answers, the dashboard can be technically correct and still produce the wrong operational conclusion.
The risks the workspace does not cover
Microsoft is explicit about the current boundary. The Supply Risk Assessment workspace is not a holistic vendor risk platform. It does not assess financial ratings, compliance, security or other external supplier risks. It also excludes risks from production supply. The old InteliSense article described several of these areas as if they were monitored by the workspace, which overstates the feature.
Organisations that need a complete supplier risk model should combine Dynamics 365 delivery evidence with the controls they use for financial due diligence, sanctions and compliance checks, information security, quality, contract performance, environmental exposure and business continuity. Those sources may sit in specialist services, supplier portals, contract systems or governed analytics platforms. The integration design should preserve the source and date of each signal rather than reducing every risk to one unexplained score.
Production constraints need separate treatment as well. A planned purchase may arrive exactly as promised and still be unusable because of a quality issue, engineering change, capacity shortfall or machine outage. Dynamics 365 manufacturing, quality management, Asset Management and warehouse management can provide other parts of that operational picture, but they are not included in the supplier delivery risk calculation described here.
When the workspace is a good fit
The feature is a good fit for organisations that already manage purchase orders, planned orders and receipts in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and want a clearer view of delivery reliability. It is especially useful where procurement handles many vendors or products and manual supplier scorecards make it difficult to connect historic performance with upcoming demand.
It is less useful when purchase order dates and receipts are incomplete, master planning is not trusted or supplier risk is being treated mainly as an external due diligence problem. In those cases, the first job is to fix the data or define a broader risk architecture. Switching on another dashboard will not resolve either issue.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Dynamics 365 Supply Risk Assessment workspace
It is a workspace in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management that combines actionable supplier performance information with embedded Power BI analysis. It uses historic purchase order delivery performance to assess risk for future planned purchases.
Which supplier performance measures does it use
The workspace uses requested and confirmed receipt dates, on-time delivery, in-full delivery and on-time in-full performance. It can also identify planned items assigned to a single vendor.
Does it monitor supplier financial or cybersecurity risk
No. Microsoft states that the current feature does not provide holistic vendor assessment across financial ratings, compliance, security or other risks. Those areas need separate data and controls.
Why is the workspace blank or out of date
The workspace data cache may need to be initialised or refreshed, and the VendSupplyRiskCacheDataSet consumer must be enabled to keep workspace data current. The Purchase cube in the Entity Store must also be refreshed for the embedded Power BI reports.
Can the workspace prevent a supply chain disruption
It can identify delivery patterns and planned purchase exposure that deserve attention. Prevention depends on the decisions that follow, such as changing a supplier, route, delivery method, order date or inventory policy.
Which Dynamics 365 version introduced the capability
Microsoft states that the first release was available in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management version 10.0.31. Current environments should still be checked for feature configuration, data refresh and report readiness before use.
