Capable-to-Promise (CTP)

Capable-to-promise (CTP) is an order-promising method that commits customer orders against both available production capacity and material or inventory supply. It tells you when a new or unscheduled order can realistically be delivered. In integrated business planning (IBP), CTP prevents overpromising and connects sales, supply, and finance around delivery dates you can keep.

CTP uses a finite-scheduling, or constrained, model. It accounts for resource availability, raw-material and purchased-part lead times, lower-level components and subassemblies, and existing order commitments. Calculations can span multiple manufacturing or distribution sites, so CTP depends on accurate capacity planning and supply planning data.

CTP extends available-to-promise (ATP), which considers only on-hand inventory plus scheduled receipts, minus committed orders. CTP adds production capacity and what can be sourced from vendors, which makes it more complex to compute. When stock covers demand, both give the same answer, so companies often run ATP first and use CTP when ATP falls short.