Does anyone have any good documentation on the MRP and Scheduling functionality.
I’ve read through the technical Reference Guides, the help, and done the courses.
I’m looking for something like a model to show the relationships between all the different parameters.
I’ve never seen such a thing but it sure would be nice for people new to Epicor. Most of us have a test/dev/pilot system that we use to test the effect of changing parameters in order to build our own specific model.
Thanks for the reply. I would be very pleasantly surprised if anyone is able to provide an accurate current model. We are 6 months post go live now and still discovering so much every week. Seems like the common approach to figuring out MRP logic is one of trial and error… Which is frustrating at best and extremely costly at worst.
Most of us use a process where we move a copy of Prod to Test/Dev and change variables and re-run MRP and scheduling processes to see what happens without affecting actual production.
I do agree, but every company seems to do something different. Have you found yourself a consultant who has manufacturing/MRP experience? There are a number of them out there who might be able to help. I’ve found that the Epicor education and documentation is good to get the knowledge, but it takes someone with experience to truly help implement.
We have a third party Epicor Partner consulting company helping us, but I feel that they haven’t been strong on the consulting side. I agree with your last sentence, that is what we desperately need.
I suppose I should just start building a model myself. I come from a hard sciences background, and the scientific approach goes through three distinct stages, Classification, Correlation and Cause and Effect. So I suppose the first step of my model will be building a glossary to define all the Epicor terminology as best I can…
I would also suggest that you shop around for an MRP specialist. Jsut call some of the partners and interview some of their candidates. Yes - you can interview them before signing them on to your project.
Also - start with the basics. MRP and scheduling really rely on just a few things - accurate material delivery dates, accurate order request dates, accurate manufacturing capacity and resource calendars - and maybe a few other bits depending on your shop. Even if you don’t do anything with all the other modifiers, you can get a good schedule and “time phase” with just the basics. Then add items like move/queue time, backflushing and some other time savings items. You can decide when to do the rest of the little bits like Supplier performance and lead times, manufacturing lead times, batch production sizes, etc. after you have a solid schedule and MRP process working. Just my thoughts on it.
These are really important.
The first big questions is, is MRP providing useful output at all? If so, what needs improving? If not, let’s begin with a single finished good part and walk through its settings.
And you’re correct, it IS mostly trial and error… but typically two or three things can make a big difference. The problem is, those “two or three things” are different for every shop.