Work order planning

Work order planning is part of the Sage Distribution and Manufacturing Operations supply chain management processes that manage your stock so that the right amount of items are available when needed to meet customer demand.

An MRP calculation request forecasts demand for your released and other items. It matches your supply of components, raw materials, and stock items with current and future demand for the items, identifies stock shortages and estimates how much stock needs replenishing to minimise excess stock.

MRP calculation results are replicated on this page. Generated recommendations that satisfy these stock shortages display in a simple list by company, site and item. For each suggestion, you can analyse what to manufacture and/or purchase, by which date, and the type of demand that creates the anticipated production.

On this page, you can initiate your production processes quickly and easily from the suggested MRP calculation results. To place timely orders for restocking your items, you can combine several of the production recommendations together on one work order. This is an efficient way of managing your supply chain operations and an effective way of ensuring suggested materials are available at the required times to fulfill your schedule.

Review the list of suggestions

The list of suggestions generated by the MRP calculation is grouped into weekly buckets per company, site and item.

1 suggestion per requirement per weekly bucket is generated where the potential requirements exceed any supply of the item. The generated suggestions include an uplift to component quantities when a Scrap factor % is defined on the bill of material. Supply and demand transactions with a due date in the past are included in the calculation for the first weekly bucket.

MRP is calculated as: (Total supply + Starting stock) – Total demand – Safety stock

The date of the first requirement in the bucket is the Sunday of the appropriate weekly bucket.

The suggested Order date is from the calculated due date. Production suggestions consider the item-site Production lead time.

1. In the main view, analyse the suggestion details and replenishment information.

   If all lines are correct, you can create work orders from the suggestions. Go to Create work orders for in-house production.

   The Stock quantity represents the order quantity that MRP has calculated produces the best schedule, subject to the specified item-site replenishment rules and MRP calculation request criteria.

   If data such as the work order start date needs changing, select the line to edit the suggestion details.

2. You can leave the following fields as the default values or you can enter your own values:

   • Start date: The default planned Start date is the MRP calculation request Start date.
   • Category: The Category of work order to create.

   • Type: The work order Type. This also sets the initial status for the work order.

     If you leave the initial status of the work order as Planned, you cannot track progress for the work order.

     If you set the initial status of the work order as Firm, you can track production progress and component consumption for the work order.

   • Name: Leave as the Released item name or enter the name that's commonly used for the finished item at your production site.

   • Work order number: Leave the field blank to generate the next sequential work order number or enter your own work order reference.

     If you enter your own custom work order reference, it needs to be unique.

3. Close the record.
4. Repeat these steps for each suggestion you want to edit before you add it to a work order.

Create work orders for in-house production

The displayed list of suggestions are from the item-site records included in the latest MRP calculation results set. Each time a new MRP calculation is requested, any item-site suggestions for an item included in the MRP calculation request overwrite item-site suggestions on this page. This could mean that a suggestion is deleted altogether if the MRP calculation determines stock of an item is sufficient to meet any demand for that item.

1. In the main view, select the lines to combine onto work orders.
2. Select Create order, then on the information message select OK to confirm.

3. When you select OK, the items are loaded onto as few work orders as possible. The following rules are applied:

   1. For lines with an identical Company + Stock site + Item + Start date: Create a single work order.
   2. For each combined work order created in a: Combine the Stock quantity figures into a single figure.
   3. Set the work order Status to Pending.

4. Each suggestion created as a combined or a single work order is deleted from the main view.

   To let you know that the work orders are created, a notification displays in the Notification centre. Select the link from the notification to go to a filtered list of the created orders in the main list on the Work order page.

   A notification also displays if data needed for a work order is missing.

   On the Work order page, you can edit a work order and change a planned order to a firm order when the work order is approved for full production. See the Work order page for further information.

5. On the MRP calculation page, the Suggestion status for the corresponding line in the MRP calculation results set is set to Ordered.

Delete a suggestion

You delete a suggestion from the MRP calculation page. When you delete an MRP calculation result set, all suggestions on this page generated by the MRP calculation are deleted at the same time.

Working with MRP calculations and results

Refer to the list of questions in this section for guidance on how to use your Sage Distribution and Manufacturing Operations solution to carry out day-to-day planning tasks.

• What constitutes demand for the MRP calculation?
• Does the MRP calculation analyse requirements for the levels in a bill of material?
• How does MRP calculate when and what to purchase or manufacture to satisfy demand?
• A suggestion has been generated for an item that has not been ordered by a customer. Why?

What constitutes demand for the MRP calculation?

Demand comes from:

• Sales orders, sales quotes (optional), and any demand for components and raw materials
• The item-site Safety stock level

• Demand transactions with a due date in the past

  These are considered to be demand not delivered on the MRP calculation Start date.

The MRP calculation matches your supply of components, raw materials, and stock items to the demand and generates a suggestion where the potential requirements exceed any supply. The MRP calculation checks the Safety stock level at the end of each weekly bucket calculation. If the calculation takes the quantity of Accepted stock below the safety stock level for the week it generates a suggestion for the weekly bucket. If there is insufficient stock available, the MRP calculation generates:

• A Production suggestion if the item is manufactured and the item-site Preferred process is Production
• A Purchasing suggestion if the item is purchased and the item-site Preferred process is Purchasing

Does the MRP calculation analyse requirements for the levels in a bill of material?

Yes. When the Explode bill of material checkbox is selected, MRP analyses the potential requirements for a released product needed for a work order, and for its components and raw materials, according to the bill of material definition. If the MRP calculations determine stock of the released item is in shortage, MRP processes its component requirements, together with any other supply and demand to determine if there are stock shortages for its component items as well. It then creates additional suggestions to satisfy the component item stock shortages.

How does MRP calculate when and what to purchase or manufacture to satisfy demand?

See MRP calculation and examples for full details of the MRP calculation and worked examples.

A suggestion has been generated for an item that has not been ordered by a customer. Why?

The MRP calculation generates a suggestion where potential requirements exceed your supply of components, raw materials and stock items. As the MRP calculation also checks the Safety stock level at the end of each weekly bucket calculation it could have generated a suggestion because the quantity of Accepted stock fell below the safety stock level for the week. So although there appears to be no demand from a specific order, the suggestion could have been generated because there is insufficient stock of the item. If there is insufficient stock available to meet demand, the MRP calculation generates:

• A Production suggestion if the item is manufactured and the item-site Preferred process is Production.
• A Purchasing suggestion if the item is purchased and the item-site Preferred process is Purchasing.