We are struggling to make sense out of E10.1’s PO suggestions deal. For example, we have a part “AAAA” that has a Min Qty set at 40 and a Min Order Qty of 20. Our balance drops to 38 (2 less then minimum) so the system suggests and we order:
March 1st. Order 30 giving us 68 on PO number 12345 (price Break at 30)
March 1st. Reduce PO 12345 by 28 (NOTE MINIMUM ORDER QTY IS 20) giving us just 40 if we did it.
Why does it try to reduce a PO below it’s minimum order Qty? There is no Max Qty and No Safety Stock. Leas time is 4 days and Days of Supply is 21.
Unfortunately, you will see the “Reduce” suggestions even though there is a Minimum Order quantity. It is not looking to see if there is a minimum order quantity when the reduce suggestion is created in the process. It is only looking to see how much do you have on hand, how much is being ordered and how much is needed.
Thanks, that’s what we thought too! It doesn’t make sense that it wouldn’t though. It’s just another example how challenged this system is in the real world. You can’t change an order to only buy 2 when the Minimum order is 20 so why suggest it. Since there is no max on hand, why is it even looking at reducing it? The only rule it should be looking at is the minimum on hand is too low. Thanks for the response!
We’ve struggled for years! with new PO suggestions. I think we finally have it working ok, with believable suggestions we can act on for inventory ordering. We use SS to handle deviations in demand and MinOH to handle usage over lead time. So, our SS + MOH = ReOrder level.
We lock PO quantities where we have no intention of changing the PO quantity and we lock the PO date if we have no intention of changing the PO date. Therefore, we get new PO suggestions instead of change PO suggestions.
We have turned on the Allow consumption of Minimum on hand on plant configuration and we fill out the urgent planning parameters Min Order Qty and LT with same data on regular purchasing, as we do not have separate urgent parameters and have found that usage of the urgent planning parameters eliminated the bug where minimum order quantity was not being used in system.
One last thing, we do our own order by and due date calculations since we found Epicor’s dates not sensible for use in many cases. Our buyers look at our calculated dates to determine what suggestions must be acted on within the week and what ones can wait. Our calculated dates are:
Due Date for Suggestion = Today + [(QOH + open POs - SS) / AvgDailyUse]
Order Suggestion By date = Due Date (above) - LT
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some out there with better way, but we have found this working well for us for the last 7 months and esp with long lead inventory.
Thanks, that helps. We’ll give that a try and see if we can get anything working a bit more realistically. It’s hard to believe and accounting system has to have this much work done to it to figure out what to buy!
Greg, your company must be a repetitive manufacturer or your demand for material never changes. We have materials that we buy specifically for certain jobs and if the customer cancels or reduces the order, we would want to reduce the amount of raw material we are purchasing to make the parts, if necessary.
We are like Beth, where we only use the checkboxes where we are certain to not desire ANY change to the PO. This holds up well for us for parts with inventory level parameters on them for managing amount to purchase.
We use 10.0.7.4 and have been live since last year and yes PO suggestions will drive you nuts. I do know when we spoke to our consultant he mentioned that many flags influence this - if they are not filled in the system will try and do lots of clever but infuriating stuff for you - I think in this case you have a MOH which you are falling below, the system is generating a suggestion but at the same time is then working out when your next demand is and telling you that you don’t need to buy that much material at this time.
Locking the PO does help but if we also populate the resource in and resource out delta’s in part | site | planning with a number of days it basically does nothing with existing po’s if they fall within that date range - it will still make suggestions if you are short/need material in that range but if you have a manual po that meets or exceeds demand it will not tell you to fix - I think these fields exist in version 9
Thanks for the suggesting this James! I haven’t played with the delta flags. This would work for the raw materials that we buy and use on a consistent basis but would give us “reduce” suggestions if we want the product in early. That way we wouldn’t have to remember to lock the PO for it.
