What this page is for
A warehouse is any place you store, produce, or fulfill stock — a distribution center (DC), a plant, or a co-manufacturer’s site holding your goods. You model each one here so the planning engine knows where stock lives and how it is allowed to move. The single most important choice for a warehouse is its type. The type tells the engine which direction stock flows: from a supplier, into your network, and out to customers.The three warehouse types
There are exactly three types. Choose the one that matches how the location behaves.| Type | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Central | Receives stock from a supplier or a Buffer warehouse, sends stock out to Satellite warehouses, and can also fulfill end customers. Think regional DC or main hub. |
| Satellite | Replenished by receiving stock from a Central (or Buffer) warehouse; rarely restocked directly from a supplier. Fulfills end customers. Think forward stocking location close to demand. |
| Buffer | Holds buffer stock and sends it to Central warehouses (rarely to Satellites). Does not fulfill end customers. Think overflow or staging pool. |
supplier → Central → Satellite → customer (with Buffer feeding Central when used)
Key attributes
| Attribute | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Active | Whether this warehouse is in use. Inactive warehouses drop out of planning. |
| Type | Central, Satellite, or Buffer — see above. |
| Desired coverage / replenish cadence | Target days of stock to keep on hand. Surfaced for Satellites, so they get topped up to a healthy buffer. |
| Can hold inventory | Whether stock can be carried here between periods. True for Central and Satellite; set to false for some co-man or co-packer sites that only pass stock through. Editable only for the Buffer type. |
| Handling lead time (days) | Time for received stock to become sellable — put-away, or post-production testing. |
| Aggregated to | Roll this warehouse’s stock, inbound, and forecast onto another warehouse for planning, so the two plan as one. |
| Region | The region this warehouse belongs to, for regional planning and reporting. |
| Facility for / production site | Links the warehouse to the supplier(s) that produce or hold stock there. |
| Address | The physical location. |
The “sellable” idea
Not every warehouse has a direct sales forecast, and that is fine. A Central or Satellite warehouse whose stock gets consumed by production — for example, a component pulled into an assembly step — counts as sellable. Spherecast treats that stock as real demand to be replenished, not as dead stock to be ignored. So a warehouse that only feeds production is still planned and kept in supply.How it affects planning
The type drives replenishment direction. When the engine sees a Satellite running low, it looks upstream to a Central to transfer stock in; when the Central runs low, it looks to a supplier (or Buffer) to bring stock in. Get the type wrong — for example, marking a forward DC as Central when it should be Satellite — and the engine will try to source it directly from suppliers instead of from your hub. Handling lead time and Desired coverage shape the timing: the engine orders early enough to cover put-away time and to keep the target days of stock on hand.Step by step: add a warehouse
- Open Settings → Supply chain network → Locations & warehouses and add a warehouse.
- Set Type (Central, Satellite, or Buffer) to match how the location behaves.
- Enter the address and assign a Region.
- Set Handling lead time and, for a Satellite, its Desired coverage.
- If a supplier produces or holds stock here, set Facility for / production site to link them. See Suppliers & co-manufacturers.
- Choose which products stock here on Stocking.
Example
Your Ohio hub is a Central warehouse. It receives finished goods from a supplier in Mexico and sends stock to your Texas and Georgia DCs, which you model as Satellite warehouses with a 21-day desired coverage. An overflow site near the port is a Buffer that only feeds Ohio. When Texas dips below its coverage target, Spherecast recommends a transfer from Ohio rather than a purchase order — because that is the direction the types allow.Tip: Transfers only run along lanes you have opened between warehouses. After setting types, confirm the transfer lanes exist so stock can actually move. See Transfer orders.