Planning priority rules

If you use direct material supply (DMS), you can define planning priority rules for cross-docking. These rules specify conditions that can be applied to a specific situation and a specific order, and result in a priority figure when applied to a specific order. Aggregating the priority figures of all applicable priority rules results in a planning priority, which in turn is used as the system priority.

If you use planning priority rules and create a new cross-dock order or update an existing cross-dock order, LN recalculates and updates the system priorities of all other cross-dock orders for the item and warehouse combination of the new or changed cross-dock order. Canceled cross-dock orders and closed cross-dock orders are then ignored.

Note

For cross-dock orders of type Direct Material Supply, you can use only planning priority rules.
In case of Dynamic cross-docking, you can use either planning priority rules or cross-dock order priority definitions.
For more information, refer to Cross-dock order priority.

Defining planning priority rules

To set up planning priorities, take the following steps:

In the Priority Definitions (whinh6120m000) session, create a priority definition code and a description.
On the appropriate menu, click Planning Priority Rules.
In the Planning Priority Rules (whinh6122m000) session, create planning priority rules.

Note

The number of rules is unlimited.
Planning priority rules work according to a penalty system. You can define penalty points by rule. If a rule applies to a specific demand, the penalty points are assigned to that demand. The lesser penalty points a demand has, the higher its priority.
Points can be assigned by means of a priority constant and by using a priority factor. The factor is first applied to the rule. Next, the constant is added to the resulting penalty points.
If a rule has been defined for a specific field, but the rule does not apply to the demand, no penalty points are assigned. For example, a rule has been defined specifying that a demand will receive 10 points if that demand is not a rush order. No rule has been defined for a demand that is a rush order. As a result, if the demand is a rush order, the demand receives zero points. If the demand is not a rush order, the demand receives 10 points.
If none of the rules applies to a specific demand instance, this demand receives the maximum number of penalty points, that is, the lowest priority.

Example

The following table shows an example of how you can specify planning priority rules.

Planning Priority Definition A
Rule	Priority Field	Order Type	Field Value	From Value	To Value	Time Unit	Priority Factor	Priority Constant
1	Not Applicable	Forecast	--	--	--	--	--	200
2	Order Priority	Sales Order	--	0	10000	--	0	10
3	Order Priority	Sales Order	--	10001	999999	--	0	20
4	Order Priority	Not Applicable	--	0	999999	--	0	30
5	Rush Order	Not Applicable	No	--	--	--	--	100
6	Back Order	Not Applicable	No	--	--	--	--	20
7	Shipping Constraint	Sales Order	Order Complete	--	--	--	--	10
8	Shipping Constraint	Not Applicable	not specified	--	--	--	--	20
9	Customer Priority	Sales Order	--	0	99	--	1	0
10	Customer Priority	Not Applicable	--	0	99	--	0	50
11	Time Remaining	Planned Production Order	--	0	5	Days	0	10
12	Time Remaining	Planned Production Order	--	6	99	Days	1	5
13	Time Remaining	Not Applicable	--	0	99	Days	1	15
14	Lateness	Planned Production Order	--	0	99	Days	- 0.1	10
15	Lateness	Not Applicable	--	0	99	Days	- 0.1	15
16	Warehouse	Not Applicable	A	--	--	--	--	0
17	Warehouse	Not Applicable	not specified	--	--	--	--	10
18	Order Quantity	Not Applicable	--	0	1000	--	- 0.01	10

Note: "--" = not available

Explanation of Priority Field values:

Not Applicable
LN only considers the order type. You can only set a priority constant.
Order Priority
Rules 2 and 3 are defined for order priorities for sales orders. Rule 4 is for other order types. You can set a priority constant and a priority factor. The default value for both fields is zero.
Rush Order
To assign zero priority to rush orders, define a priority constant for non-rush orders. However, to prevent that no rule applies, and a high planning priority figure (= low priority) results, Infor recommends that you also add a rule for rush orders.
Back Order
To assign zero priority to back orders, define a priority constant for non-back orders. However, to prevent that no rule applies, and a high planning priority figure (= low priority) results, Infor recommends that you also add a rule for back orders.
Shipping Constraint
To assign higher priority to specific shipping constraints, define higher priority constants for other shipping constraints.
Customer Priority
To restrict the figures within the ranges to meaningful numbers, define priority factors between 0 and 1.
Time Remaining
Use a mix of priority constants and factors to prioritize time remaining for various order types.
Lateness
Because a greater lateness should translate to a higher priority, the priority factor must, in this case, be negative.
Warehouse
Specify a warehouse to assign the warehouse a higher or lower priority than other warehouses.
Order Quantity
Because greater order quantities usually receive higher priority, the priority factor here must also be negative.

Validating planning priority rules

Because rules can contradict each other, LN provides an option to validate the priority definition. You must validate a priority definition before you can use it. To make changes to a validated priority definition, you must first click the Undo Validate on the appropriate menu in the Priority Definitions (whinh6120m000) or the Planning Priority Rules (whinh6122m000) session.

Validation checks that are blocking:

A higher order priority figure should result in a higher priority figure.
A rush order usually results in a lower priority figure (higher priority) than no rush order.
A greater time remaining usually results in a higher priority figure than less time remaining.
A greater lateness usually results in a lower priority figure than shorter lateness.
An overlap in defined ranges. This precludes the compilation of a priority.
A gap in defined ranges. This precludes the compilation of a priority.

Validation checks that are not blocking:

A back order usually results in a lower priority figure (higher priority) than no back order.
Shipping constraints usually result in lower priority figures than no shipping constraints.
Lateness usually has a lower priority figure than time remaining.
A greater order quantity usually results in a lower priority figure.

Using planning priority rules

You can define priority definitions on various levels:

In the Inventory Handling Parameters (whinh0100m000) session. The priority defintion you specify here is the default for every warehouse.
In the Warehouses (whwmd2500m000) session. The priority defintion you specify here becomes the default for each new item linked to that warehouse.
In the Warehouse - Item (whwmd2510m000) session.

When prioritizing a number of demand orders, LN first uses a planning priority definition from the warehouse-item level. If no priority definition is specified on this level, LN uses the definition as specified on warehouse level. If no priority definition exists on this level either, LN uses the definition as specified in the parameters session. If no defintion exists here either, no prioritizing takes place. LN calculates planning priorities whenever you run DMS planning.

When LN prioritizes demand based on priority definitions, all demand data for a specific item in the relevant warehouses is gathered, and a planning priority is calculated for each demand instance.

Example

The following DMS example assumes that all demand is in the same warehouse-item combination, and for that reason use the same planning priority definition.

First, a number of orders with relevant attributes for the priority calculation is listed. Next, this section describes the calculation for each demand instance.

Demand
Nr.	Order Type	Order Priority	Rush Order	Back Order	Shipping Constraint	Customer Priority	Time Remai-ning	Late-ness	Ware-house	Order Quantity
1	Forecast	-	-	-	-	-	20	-	A	50
2	Sales Order	5000	Yes	-	-	10	5	-	B	50
3	Sales Order	25000	-	Yes	-	20	2	-	B	100
4	Sales Order	10000	-	0	Order Complete	10	-	2	A	200
5	Service Order	20000	-	-	-	5	1	-	B	100
6	Service Order	5000	-	-	-	20	-	4	A	50
7	Planned Production Order	10000	-	-	-	-	2	-	A	100
8	Planned Production Order	20000	-	-	-	-	-	3	C	200

Based on the planning priority definition example, the following priorities are calculated:

Priority	464	99	196	173	255	244	239	248
Order/Demand
Rule	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1	200	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2	-	10	-	10	-	-	-	-
3	-	-	20	-	-	-	-	-
4	-	-	-	-	30	30	30	30
5	100	-	100	100	100	100	100	100
6	20	20	-	20	20	20	20	20
7	-	-	-	10	-	-	-	-
8	20	20	20	-	20	20	20	20
9	-	10*1	20*1	10*1	-	-	-	-
10	50	-	-	-	50	50	50	50
11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	20*1+15	5*1+15	2*1+15	-	1*1+15	-	-	-
14	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-0.1*3+10
15	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
16	0	-	-	0	-	0	0	0
17	-	10	10	-	10	-	-	10
18	-0.01*50 +10	-0.01*50 +10	-0.01*100 +10	-0.01*200 +10	-0.01*100 +10	-0.01*50 +10	-0.01*100 +10	-0.01*200 +10

Based on these outcomes, available supply is distributed in the following order:

Order 2 (rush order)
Order 4 (overdue)
Order 3 (back order)
Order 7
Order 6 (overdue)
Order 8 (overdue)
Order 5
Order 1 (forecast)