Consolidating Planned Orders

The MRP and APS systems create one planned order for each requirement that is not satisfied by existing on-hand inventory or other receipts. You can consolidate these planned orders into more manageable increments by specifying parameters on the Planning Parameters form and on the Items form.

The consolidation options allow you to generalize the planning detail progressively as the planned orders are due later. For example, you may want to plan carefully all requirements due within the week, but group everything due after that into larger groups that are easier to track.

The actions described here are taken either by the MRP Planning activity or by APS:

  • If MRP mode is selected, MRP consolidates only according to the Days Supply value defined on the Items form, and always with a value of at least 1. Although you can enter 0 in the Days Supply field, MRP treats 0 as 1 day.
  • If APS mode is selected, planned order consolidation occurs at this time:
    • If the Days Supply Planning field is selected on the Planning Parameters form, planned order consolidation occurs after the planning logic phase, then a second planning logic phase begins.
    • If the Days Supply Planning field is not selected, planned order consolidation occurs after the planning logic is complete.

Actions

To determine how to combine the planned orders for a given item, either MRP or APS performs these actions, in order:

  • If you are using APS, the system considers the Manufactured Items and Purchased/Transferred Items consolidation parameters on the Planning Parameters form.
    Consolidation Setting Description
    None (default) The system does not consolidate the planned orders. There will be one planned order for each unsatisfied requirement for the item. MRP does not support this option; it always consolidates with a Days Supply of at least 1.
    One Day The system consolidates all planned orders due on the same day into a single planned order. There will be one planned order for each day's requirements for the item.
    Days Supply The system consolidates all planned orders due within the item's Days Supply number of days into a single planned order. For example, suppose an item with Days Supply = 5 has four planned orders: PLN01 due October 10, Qty=500 PLN02 due October 13, Qty=100 PLN03 due October 17, Qty=500 PLN04 due October 22, Qty=50 The system consolidates PLN01 and PLN02 into one planned order for quantity of 600 due October 10. PLN03 and PLN04 are consolidated into a single planned order for quantity of 550 due October 17. The due date of the earliest requirement is used as the due date of the consolidated planned order.
  • The system checks the 30-day Bucket Fence parameter on the Planning Parameters form. If the number of calendar days is reached, the system ignores the Planned Orders Consolidation parameter settings and combines the planned orders into 30-day increments.

    For example, suppose the current date is October 10, and the 30-day Bucket Fence is set to 50 days. In addition to earlier planned orders for a given item, there are several planned orders for it that are due much later:

    PLN10 due December 20, Qty=100

    PLN11 due December 23, Qty=50

    PLN12 due January 6, Qty=200

    PLN13 due January 10, Qty=100

    PLN14 due January 31, Qty=100

    All of these planned orders are due within the same 30-day period. The system combines these orders into a single planned order for 550, due December 20.

  • The system checks the 90-day Bucket Fence parameter on the Planning Parameters form. If this number of days is reached, the system begins grouping all requirements due within the 90-day period into a single planned order.

    Typically, the 90-day Bucket Fence is set to a larger number of days than the 30-day Bucket Fence, to create a logical progression of detail in your planned orders.

Disabling Consolidation for Specific Items

You can disable consolidation for a specific item while using consolidation for the rest of your items. Enter 0 in the Days Supply field on the Items form for the item for which you want to disable consolidation. Planned orders for this item will not be consolidated (however, consolidation happens as specified for all other items). If you are using MRP, the system always consolidates with Days Supply of at least 1.

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