Material Workbench

The Material Workbench presents material information that is aggregated in a hierarchical list. The list displays up to five aggregation levels. The information is presented in user-defined time buckets, for example, using a two-week bucket. Critical materials can be identified by coloring or filtering. Using the Material Workbench, you can take decisions, perform a simulation, and display the consequences directly.

The Material Workbench presents material information where the planner can perform these operations:
  • Select the items to display.
  • Select the item fields to display.
  • Select aggregation across warehouse or across items.
  • Filter on item information, for example, identify items with material issues.
  • Use material workbench as scoreboard record.
On the Primary
  • Item selection
  • Report start, bucket size, and horizon
  • Report display selection, for example, U/M

On the Secondary behavior tab, you can select the item filter, the Scoreboard record count level, and the coverage days logic. behavior tab, you can select these elements:

On the Coloring behavior tab, you can select coloring based on standard coloring, color coding, field filter coloring, coverage days coloring or material shortage coloring.

On the Agg1, Agg2, and Agg1 behavior tabs, you can select up to three levels of aggregation.

On the Plan lev item behavior tab, you can select the output for the planning level items. Planning level items are the level where material synchronization has been performed.

On the Item-Whs behavior tab, you can select the output for the item or warehouse level inside the planning level item. This tab is relevant only if material synchronization has been performed on a higher level than item-warehouse level.

On the Sups and Dems behavior tab, you behavior tab, you can select the supplies or demands that are displayed and the information that is displayed for each supply and demand.

Output Options

The base output options on the Planning Level Item are Demands, Supplies, and On-hand balance MRP (OHB-MRP).

The possible output includes these options:

  • Accumulated demands: The demands that are accumulated across buckets.
  • Accumulated supplies: The supplies that are accumulated across buckets.
  • Actual demands: The demands from order categories 311 and 399.
  • Coverage days: This data refers to how many days into the future the OHB-MRP covers future demands. If the OHB-MRP covers all demands, then coverage days is displayed as 999 days.
  • Coverage days %: The comparison of the Coverage days with the Coverage days target defined on the item or warehouse.
  • Demands: The demands from all order categories.
  • Firmed or released order supplies: The supplies that are from released orders and firmed planned order proposals.
  • Forecast demands: The demands from order categories 010.
  • Internal demands: The demands that are from order categories 510 and 511.
  • Minimum material availability: There is a loop over all orders supplying in the buckets that finds the order with the minimum values of Material availability percentage.
  • On-hand balance: This alternative on-hand balance is relevant in scenarios where negative OHB-MRP result in lost sales. If there is a negative OHB-MRP, this alternative on-hand balance is zero.
  • On-hand balance MRP: The On-hand balance MRP is the standard on-hand balance. This function uses the same logic as the material plan in MMS080 that allows negative on-hand balance values.
  • Out of stock: An OHB-MRP value of 42 results to an Out of stock value of zero. An OHB-MRP value of -42 results to an Out of stock value of 42.
  • Planned order supplies: The supplies from planned order proposals.
  • Stock start: The stock at the start of bucket is equal to the OHB-MRP from the previous bucket.
  • Supplies: The supplies from all order categories.
  • Target stock: The initial target stock is defined on the item or warehouse. You can use the order category 020 transactions to adjust the target stock over time.
  • Target stock deviation: The OHB-MRP minus the target stock.

Report Control

The Material Workbench presents material information that is aggregated in a hierarchical list. The list displays up to five aggregation levels. You can decide the number of levels to display, zoom in or out of the levels, and scroll forward or backward in the time buckets to display the planned load. You can take decisions and access the Work Center Resource, the Supply Chain Navigator, the Utilization, the Work Center Schedule, and the Material Control from the Material Workbench.

You can run a selected workflow from the Material Workbench, for example, to perform a simulation after decisions and display the consequences for the plan.

The report can display up to five aggregation levels, plus the supply and demand level. Each aggregation level shows a folder symbol and the selected aggregation is displayed in the folder line. The underlying aggregation levels are displayed indented under each other.

To display the tooltip of a supply icon or demand icon, rest the mouse pointer over the aggregation icon. For aggregations, the tooltip displays grouping information that is selected on the aggregation levels. For supplies or demands, the tooltip displays additional information that is selected on the Sups and Dems tab.

Scoreboard Record

Scoreboard records display the KPIs that are defined by the planner. These examples show how KPIs can be used:

  • How many items have shortages inside two weeks
  • How many items will get below 20% of the coverage days target inside three weeks
  • How many items will get above 140% of the coverage days target inside one week
  • How many items have manufacturing orders, inside one week, that are waiting for purchase orders that are not yet received
  • How many purchased items will cause delay due to late purchase orders inside two weeks

Symbols and buttons

See the symbol and button tooltips in the application.