Planning clusters and Planned items

The planning cluster concept allows you to perform integrated planning over multiple locations. A planning cluster represents one or more warehouses located near each other – typically, the warehouses at a particular location or in a particular country.

You can define a plan item for each combination of planning cluster and item code.

The plan item code includes these segments:

  • The planning cluster segment
  • The project segment
  • The item code segment

Therefore, the plan item represents the combination of item definition and location.

Clustered items and nonclustered items

You can define a plan item with an empty cluster segment. If only one location is involved in planning, and just one planning cluster is used, you do not have to define a cluster code.

When multiple planning clusters are needed, all warehouses must be linked to a cluster for easier planning.

Note

If multiple clusters are present, warehouses not linked to a specific cluster are treated as one group, related to the 'empty segment' cluster.

The clustered item groups all inventory and planned inventory transactions of all warehouses that are assigned to the cluster.

The nonclustered plan item groups all inventory and transactions of all warehouses not linked to any cluster.

To view the planned inventory transactions, use the Planned Inventory Transactions (whinp1500m000) session.

Note

The planning system ignores inventory and planned inventory transactions of warehouses that are explicitly excluded from the planning process, such as a warehouse for rejected items or spare parts.

To exclude a warehouse from the planning process, clear the Include in Enterprise Planning check box in the Warehouses (whwmd2500m000) session.

Example of planning clusters

Suppose you defined item S-3501.

You also defined the following planning clusters:

  • EUR (Europe)
  • NA (North-America)
  • JAP (Japan)

Now, you can define four plan items all representing the same physical item:

  • EUR S-3501
  • NA S-3501
  • JAP S-3501
  • S-3501

The planning engine treats these four plan items as four different items. For each plan item, the system maintains the anticipated receipts and issues, expected inventory levels, and forecast demand separately.

The plan item concept supports the following functionality:

  • MRP (Material Requirements Planning)
  • MPS (Master Planning Schedule)
  • PRP (Project Requirements Planning)
  • DRP (Distribution Requirements Planning)

Similarly, you can specify plan items for project items. In that case, the plan item code has three segments: cluster, project, and item code.