[Catherine Collins]

?We are on NAV 2015.

We have some finish good items setup as Fixed Order Qty and some with Lot-for-Lot.   ALL of our FG items are setup with Manufacturing Policy of Make to Stock.    When we run MPS/MRP we include a Sales Forecast which is a weekly forecast that populates on Mondays.

In the example attached, this item is setup with no Reorder Point, but does have a Reorder Quantity.    Is it okay to have items setup like this if we don’t need to maintain stock or if the item is going to have a reorder quantity it should also have a reorder point?

In reviewing the event log from the planning worksheet, it appears that MPS is suggesting New Planned Work Orders to meet the weekly forecast during the month of August.   However, when we get to September, it changes the suggesting to plan based on the Reorder Qty.    Why would it not have suggested to plan 684 cases on the first suggestion on 8/13/18?   If this is because of the 30D Time Bucket, that it only made suggestions to meet the weekly forecast in August because it was within 30 days and then AFTER the 30 days, it defaults to the Reorder Qty, then shouldn’t MPS also have suggested to change the quantity on the Firm w/o on 9/17/18 to something less than 684?

Would appreciate any  help in understanding the logic.

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Catherine Collins
Business System Analyst
San Francisco Bay Coffee Company
Lincoln CA
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[Ben Baxter]

Catherine,

The worksheet is very detailed and this could take some time to step through.  I would suggest you reach out to your Partner for assistance in troubleshooting the suggestions you are getting.

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Ben Baxter
Consultant
Accent Software, Inc.
Carmel IN
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[Catherine Collins]

?Thanks Ben,

We have been struggling with implementing MRP/MPS for a little over 6 months now.    The challenge in our business is that we don’t have a one size fits all for “Planning”.     80% of our items we produce once a month.   However, that 80% is the low volume items and we produce them once a month.    Some are made to stock and some are made to order.     The other 20% – our high volume, we produce some daily and some weekly.    These 20% are all made to stock.       

Because the majority of the work orders we open represent the 20%, we choose to import a weekly forecast.    Having a “weekly forecast” seems to be playing havoc with the calculations on demand and how many MPS suggestions we get for the 80% that are only made once a month.   And we still are going back and forth on these 80% on whether they should be Lot-for-Lot or Fixed Order Qty.

Then, throw in the example I provided and trying to interpret why MPS is calculating the way it is, is starting to make this project drag out.    Most of the time I can figure out the logic, even if I don’t like the logic.   

Company would like to not have to go to partner and use in-house resources to minimize expense.   I may have to admit defeat and make that request.  🙁

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Catherine Collins
Business System Analyst
San Francisco Bay Coffee Company
Lincoln CA
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[John Grant]

Catherine – one item to check when using Fixed Reorder policy is in the Manufacturing setup. You may already have this but just checking – the setup for Blank Overflow Level out of the box is set to “Use Default Calculation”.

Initially the Overflow Level on each item may not be setup and if you do not change the Manufacturing setup the default is to have the system calculate the Overflow level which can change recommendations in the planning worksheet. Just want to make sure this parameter is not causing issues with your Fixed Reorder items in the planning worksheet. Fixed Reorder and Maximum are the only Reorder Policies using the overflow level field.

If set “Use Default Calculation” change the value and rerun planning to see it that helps. Having an overflow level on each item setup I find is used as planners get more comfortable with planning data.

Best Regards

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John Grant
Senior Application Consultant
Innovia Consulting
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[Catherine Collins]

?Thanks  John,

We did change the Manufacturing Setup to use Item/SKU Values Only for the Blank Overflow level.      However, most of our items on the item card are blank in the OverFlow Field and the Time Bucket Field as we thought it would be easier to keep these blank for now until we got comfortable with the planning worksheet.

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Catherine Collins
Business System Analyst
San Francisco Bay Coffee Company
Lincoln CA
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[John Grant]

Catherine – another setup to eliminate. If in inventory setup locations mandatory is checked then make sure on the Manufacturing setup that item at locations is filled in with your primary location.  On the SKU card for Prod. Order and Assembly items there is also an items at location to fill in if the components for the SKU finished item should be planned at that location for example. Just want to eliminate a setup that is sometimes missed and if location mandatory is marked but items at location is not filled in the system when running planning will look for a SKU record. I not found will default planning to Lot-for-Lot and will ignore any planning fine tuning setup on the item card such as minimum order qty, order multiple, etc.- some cases will even ignore forecasting.

Best Regards

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John Grant
Senior Application Consultant
Innovia Consulting
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[Robert Jolliffe]

Hi Catherine,

Some customers try and use a sales forecast for make to stock sub-assemblies/components.  What you might see if you do this is that the sub-assembly or component demand seems to be doubling up.  The sales forecast demand is being added to the actual demand from higher level parts.  Is this what you are seeing?

You maybe should look at setting a safety stock level for those quickly produced, low cost parts (I assume they are low cost) rather than a sales forecast.   If the safety stock level needs to “move” depending on seasonality then I understand why you would want a forecast.

This is a little complicated to get into on-line.  Reach out to your partner and see if they have an MRP expert.  The one thing to remember about MRP is you’re never going to get perfection. What you will get is much, much better than a manual system.

-Rob

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Robert Jolliffe MCSE, MCS – NAV Manufacturing Expert
President
Sabre Limited
Cambridge
robert@sabrelimited.com
http://www.sabrelimited.com
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