Previous article: Production Planning: Bills of Materials
The current planning module is provided as a pilot in beta mode and by
means of an integration with a 3rd party service. The features supported
are those described in this Knowledge Base section only - additional
functionality may be able to be provided on a case-by-case basis.
Every morning, after the production plans have been generated, the system uses the bill of materials information to calculate the dependent demand for materials consistent with the production plans. Dependent demand for each and every material is aggregated from each production plan that involves the material and the inventory projections are updated.
The material requirements planning agent acts in a manner similar to the production planning agent. It calculates planned purchase order quantities for each period attempting to maintain ending inventory above (but as close as possible) to the minimum inventory policy level.
The planning agent makes no changes to the firmed purchase order plan quantities – it only operates on the periods where the purchase order plan is not firmed.
The dependent demand calculation takes into account the production time found in the item’s bill of materials. It is assumed that all materials are needed at the start of the production process so if the production time is significant it will usually shift material demand to the previous planning period. Thus purchase orders will be planned so the materials are available in time for the start of the production process.
Steps for Implementing Material Requirements Planning
The planner can manually trigger the execution of the purchase order planning agent by clicking the “Generate Purchase Plans” button in the “Planning” view. Once the agent execution concludes the view is refreshed with the newly calculated inventory projection.
When the planner is satisfied with the purchase plan numbers for a period the plan should be firmed in that period – this ensures that the planning agent makes no more changes to it and the plan is ready to be executed. Usually, the first month (or the first couple of months) in the planning horizon should be firmed.
The easiest way to firm the purchase plan is to drill down from the “Projection Details” tab of the “Planning” view to the “Purchase Plans” view. The view is also accessible through the main application menu: “Plans & Actuals” item, and “Purchase Plans” sub-item.
To firm the purchase plan in a period simply check the “Firm Planned” box for the period then click the “Submit Changes” button. The system will automatically recalculate the inventory projection to reflect the changes.
The system can be configured to automatically create purchase orders in Megaventory corresponding to the fixed purchase plan – one purchase order per period. The supplier is determined using the main supplier information from Megaventory. Alternatively, the orders can be manually entered in Megaventory.
Supplier information
The supplier information can be viewed in the “Supply Policies” view accessible either through the main application menu (“Policies & Parameters” item, “Supply Policies” sub-item) or through a drill down from the top part of the “Planning” view.
Next article: Manual process invocation