How to Use "PO Suggestions" correctly

Epicor ERP 10
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Hello all,

I feel like I am missing some crucial information about how “PO Suggestions” works. I have a weldment part that contains a component part that has an outside vendor step in the routing:

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I know that we have both open jobs and future demand for this weldment:

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I believe everything is set up properly in the routing, with a subcontract step and “days out” specified:

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When I go ahead and run the “Generate Suggestions” process for the weldment, I would expect to see suggestions for subcontract PO to come up in “Time Phased Inquiry”, but it does not:

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Can anyone direct me towards documentation about how this process is supposed to work? I have many questions, including:

  • Do PO suggestions need to be run for the component parts of weldments in order to see PO suggestions for the top level part?

  • Once run, where do I access these PO suggestions and how do I create the PO’s from the suggestions?

We do not use MRP at present - hopefully that is not my missing component to understanding this.

Thanks,

Alice

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Timephase will not show the sub-contract operation, BUT there should be a suggestion in the NEW PO suggestions under the “Subcontract List” tab.
It doesn’t show on TimePhase, because it is only an operation to complete by a resource from outside your company. That is the only difference between a sub-contract operation and a regular operation (which also does not show on Time Phase).

2 Likes
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Alice,
I’m not sure you are going to see a SubContract Suggestion in Time Phase, but for your questions:

Yes

You would access the PO Suggestions via the ‘New PO Suggestions’ program. The suggestion will show up under the Buyer that is set on the SubContract Operation in Operation Maintenance. Make sure the account you are using is an Authorized User for that Buyer otherwise you will not see anything.
Also, for you to get a PO Suggestion the Job will need to be scheduled so the PO Suggestion has a Date to work with.

1 Like
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Thank you so much…I feel like I may be getting somewhere now.

I checked operation maintenance and made sure I was the buyer and that the opeation is marked as subcontract. I did not put a send-ahead value, as I though the “Days out” in routing would specify that…am I mistaken?

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I ran the “Generate Suggestions” process for all parts (I am in TEST) and then went to "New PO suggestion but I don’t see anything…should the subcontract tab populate on its own or am I missing where I need to access these suggestions?

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Thanks again,

Alice

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Look in the New PO Suggestions Subcontract list for the JOB number or the JOB’s production part number… it may well not come up on the weldment’s part number.

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Alice,
You are correct. Can you provide a screenshot of the Job’s SubContract Operation in Job Tracker? I’m checking to see that the Job Operation is scheduled.
Did you attach a Scheduling Resource to the SubContract Operation in Operation Maintenance?
That Resource needs to be marked as SubContract as well.
Think of Resources and the Scheduling Parameters, without it nothing can be scheduled.
If you have a Resource on the Sub Contract Operation, then we just need to make sure the Job is scheduled, which may have been missed as well.

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The Purchase Order Suggestions window requires you to select the generated suggestions you want to view/process. Its not obvious, but you have to use the Search (binoculars icon).

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You have to populate the form by selecting the binoculars and calling in the suggestions.

I got hung up on that one, too.

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Great point Calvin, I forgot about that!.
Also, for Buyers they can setup a Named Search that Auto Populates the form.

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Hi there, thanks so much for all your help.

This is the Job’s subcontract operation from Job Tracker and it appears to be scheduled:

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And in Operations: I don’t think I have the resource assigned correctly though:

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The Resource type should be OV and the resource group should be “Outside Vendor”

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When I use the binoculars in “New PO Sugg”, I can see suggestions, although…none with me as buyer, which is odd since I ran “Generate Suggestions” AFTER I had specified myself as buyer in Op Maintenance.

Also, is there a way to only generate a chosen PO suggestions from “New PO suggestions” from the action menu without generating ALL?

Thanks,

Alice

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Alice,
This all looks good to me.
In Job Tracker can you select the Subcontract tab and then the Purchase Order tab and make sure there isn’t already a PO for this somehow.

When you ran PO Suggestions did you run a Regen or Net Change.
If you changed the buyer for the Subcontract operation, you need to runas Regen.
Also I noticed that the Start date of the Operation is in the past, you need to make sure that Allow Historical is enabled.

In New PO Suggestions when selecting ‘Generate PO’s’ from the Actions menu, the only POs that are generated are the ones you have enabled the ‘Selected’ checkbox.

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I appreciate your help immensely. I think I’ve got it working.

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Additional info for Rick - PO suggestions can be dated in the past even when historical dates are not allowed. From what I can tell, it is a function of “receive time”. The date backs up based upon that value before the current date.

Still digging into this, but that is what we think is happening right now.