Use Latest Pull for Alternate Items

The system uses this field during the pull planning (see “Pull and Push Planning” for more information) phase of the APS Planning activity. It affects how the system plans an operation's materials that are members of an alternate materials group. Alternate materials are materials that have the same Alt Group ID (see “Current Materials - Alternate Group” for more information) in the operation's Current Materials record.

During a run of the APS Planning activity, when this field is cleared, the system plans the materials like this:

  • It first attempts to satisfy the demand quantity from on-hand inventory and/or planned supplies of the primary material (the material with an Alt Group Rank of 0) (see “Current Materials - Alternate Group Rank” for more information).
  • For the remaining quantity not satisfied from inventory/supplies, the system then attempts to pull plan the primary material.
  • If it cannot pull plan the primary material in the time between the due date and the current date, the system clears its allocation of inventory/supplies of the primary material.
  • It then attempts to satisfy the demand quantity from on-hand inventory and planned supplies of the alternate material that has an Alt Group Rank of 1.
  • For the remaining quantity not satisfied from inventory/supplies, the system attempts to pull plan the alternate material.
Note: The system does not split the demand quantity between multiple alternate materials. For example, suppose you need 100 of Part123 on a BOM. Part 123 has alternate material Part 123-A. Because of capacity limitations, the system is only able to plan 50 of Part 123, so it selects the alternate material to satisfy the entire 100 demand quantity. It does not plan 50 of Part 123 and 50 of Part 123-A.
  • If the first alternate material cannot be pull planned in time, the system attempts to pull plan the next-highest-ranking alternate material from on-hand inventory and planned supplies. This process continues until the system finds an alternate material that can be successfully planned.
  • If none of the alternate materials can be successfully pull planned, the pull-planning phase fails and the system attempts to push plan the demand (the Use Latest Pull for Alternate Items field is not used during the push-planning phase).

When this field is selected, the system plans the materials like this:

  • If any material in the alternate group (including the primary material) is available in on-hand inventory or planned supplies, the system satisfies the demand quantity with that material.
  • If more than one material is on hand, the system uses the material with the lower Alt Group Rank value (see “Current Materials - Alternate Group Rank” for more information).
  • If none of the materials is on hand, the system "test" pull plans all materials in the alternate group (including the primary material). It examines the projected start or order dates of all materials in the alternate group and plans the material that can be ordered or started the latest.
Note: The latest order or start date results in the fastest material plan because this parameter is applied during the pull-planning phase of the APS Planning activity.
  • If more than one material has the same start or order date, the system uses the material with the lower Alt Group Rank value.
  • If none of the materials can be successfully pull planned, the pull-planning phase fails and the system attempts to push plan the demand.

This field is applied only during the first pull-planning phase that occurs if the demand will be on time. If the demand is projected to be late and the system switches to push planning, it always uses the fastest alternate material. During push planning, "fastest" means the material that can be ordered or started the earliest. The pull-planning pass that occurs after a push plan (to remove slack from the push) also uses the fastest alternate material.

Default: Do Not Select