AX 4 Net Requirements / Forecast Sales / Coverage Group calendar / Vendor delivery days

Hi. I wonder if anyone can help me, I just cannot find a solution to my problem.

I wish to set up AX 4 in such a manner that I get a Planned Purchase Order for a Delivery Day that a Vendor can deliver on (lets say that’s every Wednesday only). MRP must consider On-hand stock, Sales Orders, Forecast Sales (reduced by actual Sales Orders for tomorrow only). Note we only have Sales Orders for today ONLY.

Wednesday only Calendar set against Coverage Group
If I set a Wednesday only (Wednesday Control = Open, all others days Control = Closed) calendar against the Coverage Group I get a Wednesday Delivery day for the Planned Purchase Order BUT all Sales Forecast is missing in Net Requirements and not taken in to account by MRP for Sales Forecast up to next Wednesday ! That’s no good and not what I want.

24/7 Calendar set against Coverage Group
If I set a calendar against the Coverage Group whereby all days are control = Open, I see all future date Sales Forecast in Net Requirements, and MRP takes them in to account. Sales forecast for today is reduced by actual Sales Orders for today BUT the Planned Purchase Order Delivery day does not reflect delivery on Wednesdays only !

Setting a calendar against a Vendor has no influence.

Any help or advice gratefully received.

Thanks.

I no longer have access to 4, but I did comment on this previously.

you need a coverage group with a Wednesday calendar attached in the item coverage for the item and you must not have a default vendor set on the item card, so you must have trade agreements. The vendor referenced in the trade agreement must also reference the same calendar, if it does not it does not work. I set this up for a customer and we went through it, but as they had multiple vendors for the same product we shelved it.

They did not use slaes forecasts, but if they did they would need to have considered teh voerage group and coverage period to ensure the calendar timings were within the time fence, whilst considering the fulfill minimum setting and whether “minimum periods” is set or not as this changes everything.

My thoughts would be that it was not designed to handle this in version 4 (annoyingly) and this was without forecasts, add these in and you are probably further from getting an accetpable solution, but I never had to try it with forecasts.

Thanks for your reply. You are correct, you have commented on this previously, but I’m still trying to get to to work. My calendars are set against Coverage Group and Vendor as described and I have a TA with the vendor set in it with a Lead time (10 days), working days is not set. No vendor is set against the item. The result of this is that Sales Forecast up to next Wednesday is missing, the delivery day for the Planned PO is a Wednesday however ! - close but no cigar. I’ve not looked at the Fulfill minimum setting before however, Ill do that now and post the result. Many thanks for your input.

Hi again. The Minimum Key on the Item>Setup>Item Coverage>general tab only applies if “on-hand stock fluctuates seasonally, you can specify a minimum key to adjust the minimum stock level accordingly. View the results on the tab.” - that does not apply to me so is not set. The minimum periods tick box can only be set if a Minimum Key is set - not the case. There are 4 settings on the Fulfil minimum drop down, I have tried all four but Sales Forecast up to next Wednesday is still missing ! I’m grateful for any more input but I suspect you are correct when you say AX 4 cannot do this.

The minimum periods is more important but probably irrelevant in your case - the minumum key I did not mention :slight_smile:

Remove the forecast and set a safety stock level. Run it and see if it plans on the day you want. This worked when I did it circa 5 years ago! If it works then the setup is correct and it cannot consume forecast, if it does not work it is something else in the setup.

Hi again. Minimum periods can only be set if a Minimum Key is set. A minimum key reduces changes how much Minimum stock you have set according to chronological variations. As you correctly say, that does not apply to us and is irrelevant thus it is not set and thus Minimum period tick box is not available for selection.
Regarding your second paragraph, Safety stock levels are set, regardless of whether Sales Forecast exists or not I only get correct delivery days if a calendar is set against the Coverage Group. Basically it boils down to 2 sets of behavior;
Using a Wednesday only calendar and thus delivery day…

  1. Calendar set against Coverage Group results in correct planned PO delivery days but Sales Forecast is missing up to Wednesday.
  2. Calendar NOT set against Coverage Group (i.e. 24/7) results in incorrect planned PO delivery days but Sales Forecast is NOT missing up to Wednesday.

As I said - close but no cigar !

Hi Brian

If you have no forecasts and you load a sales order driving the demand below the safety stock does the the system only pick teh Wednesday?

Think you have a conflict where the sales forecast demand impacts on the calculation but I cannot say for certain.

Hi Adam,

If I have no Sales Forecast, no stock and a safety stock level set, no Vendor set on Item, Purchase TA for a Vendor with a Wednesday calendar set against them, Item in a Coverage Group with a Wednesday calendar set against it, if I load a Sales Order then a Planned PO with a Delivery day of a Wednesday is generated. This also happens with no Purchase TA in place.

Okay so as far as I am concerned that is as far as I went with it for the client at the time. Clearly when you start to overlay forecasts it just does not work.

That is my conclusion ! delivery days are correct but Forecast Sales are not taken in to account up to the day the calendar is next open.
thanks for your help Adam.