Workload control, backward and forward planning

General remarks concerning the backward and the forward planning methods:

Backward planning

  • Backward planning minimizes inventory levels by minimizing early delivery, but it does not always result in a feasible production plan. Any unplanned production volumes are reported.
  • The backward planning step is especially useful in case of seasonal demand patterns.
  • The backward planning step ignores coproducts completely. You should use only the forward planning step if coproducts must be considered.
Forward planning

  • The forward planning step computes feasible delivery dates.
  • Forward planning automatically uses safety stock.
Combination

  • Use the combination of backward and forward planning to level out seasonal peaks and compute feasible delivery dates in one run. The combination may result in longer computation times.
Note

If backward planning and forward planning are combined, LN executes a backward planning pass first, and then a forward planning pass.

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