Hello all.
I am getting a lot of rescheduling, change qty messages on the planning worksheet. From what I have read I thought by setting the Production Order line planning flexibility to “None”, and also doing the same on purchase order lines it would alleviate the number of messages. The problem I now get is that it is telling me to raise new orders instead. The way I have read the functionality of the planning worksheet lead me to believe the system will see the PO line coming into inventory but would not suggest replanning. It appears it discounts the input altogether and acts like the PO line does not exist.
It depends on version. Older versions this setting would cause double ordering, as you’re experiencing. In newer versions, even if the material won’t arrive on time, the planning is still respecting the incoming supply.
Best Regards,
Ben Baxter
Accent Software Inc
We are a in cloud customer, so can only presume we are on the latest version? Could that be different?
As Ben mentions the newer versions got better with demand and supply dates but I would also check if the supply orders are prior to the work date as well.
Planning Flexibility as I understand it with using it in the past means you cannot change the Purchase Order or Production Order and change it once it is created. Planning I suspect (without looking at your setups which is always helpful) still wants you to bring in the quantity you need for the date you need it so it suggests for you to supply for that date and Qty so you can produce.
You may want to look at the planning fields called Dampener Quantity and Dampener Period on the item card.
These will reduce the rescheduling and change quantity messages if you are seeing small adjustments being recommended.
EG: If you have a Dampener Quantity of 10 and the message would recommend a Qty change of 9 - it will be suppressed. If the message would recommend 11 - then you’ll see the 11.
Works the same way with period. If your dampener period is 7D - then it would ignore any rescheduling that’s less than +/- 7 Days (basically unless it’s at least a week it’ll ignore it).
Try that out and see if it helps.
Adding to the thead
The Planning flexibility set to ‘none’ for Purchasing or Prod Orders can be used to signal the planning or requisition worksheet to not suggest changes (qty, dates, cancel etc) in the worksheets for those lines. However both the Planning and Requisition worksheets will include the Purchase Orders and Production Orders with qty and dates as entered and set to Planning Flexibility ‘None’
Examples:
Purchase line has a qty of 100 and Expected Due Date of 4/15 Planning Flexibility set ‘None’
A new Sales order requires 50 on 4/31 - Planning is happy - no message to move the Purchase Order date out closer to 4/31 (may or may not be a good thing)
A new Sales order requires 50 on 4/10 - Planning suggests a New Purchase Order not a date change to move in on the already created po line since Planning flexibility is none.
My example is very basic - having solid dates on sales lines, po lines and prod orders is the first key to help eliminate the ‘noise’ in the planning worksheet. There are fine tuning setups that also help but without knowing your specifics it would be hard to recommend setup changes.
To give you more background and examples of customers use of Planning Flexibility:
Locking Prod Schedule when Releasing Prod Orders for tomorrow or 2 days out / meaning we are running those orders and do not want Planning to suggest changes - often used to pull prod orders ahead of need but the scheduler is running anyway - no message in worksheet to move prod order date out will be generated
Purchasing needs a qty of 100 that is needed but the vendor has a special going for qty of 200 - Po line created for 200 flexibility to none - No message to reduce to 100 would be generated in the planning worksheet
In both cases the process how to use and manage the Planning flexibility along with Reorder Policy setup is key
Best Regards
John Grant
Innovia Consulting
Very correct ,now we face same restitution..may be your reply helping us
Regards
Bharat Acahrya
ERP implementation head
Topland Engines pvt ltd.Rajkot,Gujarat india
Many thanks for your breakdown and I understand the principles. My struggle is I am seeing examples of MRP reccomending purchase orders when a PO line set to “none” on planning flexibility is in place, over and above the future requirements but MRP is seemingly ignoring it and not including the line in it’s calculation. Is there any known reason why this would be? What settings would you need to be aware of to prvide you with better data to see if you could advise on this specific issue? Is there a way of “bulk” modifying Production order lines/Purchase order lines planning flexibility instead of having to go into each one?
Liam -
Use item availability by event - does the pegging result give you any clue?
Make sure planning lines in your view
There is not a system setup to change or a process that will change Production Order lines/Purchase order lines to ‘None’ in mass. For reference in working with many customers over the years to help them with using BC/NAV planning the best use for the Planning Flexibility has been for locking Released Production Schedules in a short term window - orders running tomorrow or out a max of x days. Purchasing similar usage - sales may let purchasing know about a demand that is coming but nothing yet in Production or Sales - you enter all the purchase orders needed as planning flexibility none to avoid noise in the system.
The key to manage purchase orders is to use the item availability by event which will show all purchase lines (including those set to none) to allow purchasing to adjust those lines if demand requires.
Best Regards
John Grant
Innovia Consulting