When a business orders from a vendor, the goods do not arrive instantly; they arrive after the vendor's lead time. That lead time shapes purchasing and planning. This piece is about vendor lead times and delivery dates in Odoo.
What a vendor lead time is
A vendor lead time is how long a vendor takes to deliver after an order is placed: the time from placing a purchase order to the goods arriving. Every vendor has a lead time for the things it supplies, and that lead time is a real and important piece of information, because it determines when ordered goods will genuinely arrive, and so it shapes when purchasing has to happen.
Why vendor lead times matter
Vendor lead times matter because timing in purchasing depends on them. To have goods on hand by a certain time, a business has to order them a vendor-lead-time in advance. If the lead time is known and accurate, purchasing can be timed correctly: ordered early enough that the goods arrive when needed. If the lead time is not known, or is wrong, purchasing is mistimed: order too late, given the real lead time, and the goods arrive after they are needed, causing a shortage. Vendor lead times are what let purchasing be timed to reality.
How vendor lead times work in Odoo
In Odoo, vendor lead times can be associated with the vendors and the products they supply, so the system knows how long a vendor takes. The lead time then informs the timing of purchasing. When planning, reordering rules, the broader replenishment, works out what to buy and when, it uses the vendor lead time to time the purchasing: to order early enough that, given the lead time, the goods arrive when they are needed. And the lead time informs the expected delivery date of a purchase: when, given the vendor's lead time, the ordered goods should genuinely arrive.
The honest discipline: realistic lead times
The key discipline with vendor lead times is keeping them realistic. There is a pull toward recording a vendor's lead time as its best case, or as what the vendor promises. But purchasing timed on optimistic lead times will be repeatedly late, because the vendor does not always deliver in its best-case time. Vendor lead times should reflect how long the vendor genuinely, reliably takes, including the normal variability. A slightly conservative, realistic lead time produces purchasing that is reliably on time; an optimistic one produces purchasing that is regularly late and shortages that follow. The best source of realistic lead times is the business's own experience of how long the vendor genuinely takes.
Review vendor lead times
Vendor lead times change: a vendor's performance shifts over time. A business should review its vendor lead times, so they keep reflecting how long the vendor genuinely takes now. A lead time recorded accurately a year ago may be wrong now, and a wrong lead time quietly mistimes purchasing. Keeping vendor lead times current is part of keeping purchasing reliable.
The takeaway
Vendor lead times in Odoo capture how long vendors take to deliver, which shapes purchasing and planning, because to have goods on hand by a certain time, a business must order them a vendor-lead-time in advance. Odoo uses vendor lead times to time purchasing and to inform expected delivery dates. The key discipline is realism: vendor lead times should reflect how long vendors genuinely, reliably take, not their best case, and they should be reviewed as vendors' performance changes. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.