MRP settings: Need Planning Guru help!

We have a simple, but little complicated way for scheduling. We came up with this method because we don't have a full time scheduler or good production standards for all of our parts.

Here's the simple part:

We set up all of our resources to have infinite capacity. The calendar on the resources are set to 5 days a week, 20 hours a day. This way 100 hours = 1 week and we schedule in the past.

On the master methods we add most of our lead time to the very first operation on the methods and tie all of our materials to the first operation. If a part is going to take 2 weeks in our shop then our production standard on our first operation is 200 fixed hours. If it's going to take 12 weeks then it's 1200 hours. If a job will take 2 weeks in our shop, accounting for machine time and the time the parts are going to sit waiting for a machine to open up, then our material is due in our shop 2 weeks before we have to ship the parts.

Here's the more complicated part:

Engineering doesn't know how long the parts are going to take to manufacture in our shop, production control does.

We added a number field to the part plant table. This number field is the lead time for the parts. When the methods are checked in, a BPM automatically sums all the production standards and days out for the part and puts this number into the partplant.number01 field. Production control can now change that number as needed. If it was originally set to 50 hours and production control knows it will take us 3 weeks to machine the parts then he'll change the partplant.number01 field to 300 hours. A BPM will automatically change the production standard on the first operation of the methods so that the total production hours for the methods is 300 hours.

This has worked great for us. We have assemblies with 300+ subassemblies and 5 or 6 levels deep... each subassembly is scheduled to have materials in on a very realistic date.


Marco Vissuet
Systems Engineering
Pacific Contours Corporation
Office (619) 670-3900
Fax (619) 670-1643
marcov@...<mailto:marcov@...>
http://www.pacificcontours.com/

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From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Lisser, Jennifer
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 6:02 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: MRP settings: Need Planning Guru help!



Our company is doing a workaround by having q-time adder resources. When they know they need material in a couple days (or more) before the due date they will add this resource group. Within that group are various resources that add anywhere from 10-100 hours. It is a manual process but has been worth it in our situation to get the shipment out in time to the customer.

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We have been up and running for about six weeks and get a handle on the system but one thing that is becoming a challenge is the way our MRP is running.

The short version: I would like to have MRP planned jobs move there material demands backward by an amount set at the part level. However, once the job is firmed by a planner, I want MRP to use that start date and no back the downstream demands any further. Any idea how to do this such that it only effects the MRP unfirmed jobs?

The long version:
The way we run the company is that production uses the due date on the job as a "we promise we will finish the product by this date" and the start date as "the day we need all the materials to the production floor." The gap between this is our production lead time and is a combination of the actual build time (reflected in operations), production's confidence that the build won't have any problems, the likelihood of expedite requests coming, current work load, and other intangibles. The number of days that this production lead time encompasses has been determined and is stored at the part level.

When we run MRP currently the system will see a demand (sales order) and setup the due date as the day before shipment. It then sets the start date based on the op times and quantity. Usually these ends up backing up the job a couple of days. Then it cycles the purchasing suggestions and says we need the purchased components for the start date. However, if purchasing followed this suggestion we would end up getting the parts in way to close to the ship date.

We would like for MRP to set the start date X days before the due date where X is found on the part somewhere, so that the downstream jobs and POs are backed up based on that number. However, when we firm the job and set the schedule manually we do not want MRP to then suggest PO expedites to move the PO to X days before the new "firmed" start date.

I can use the Part's kit time and it works to back everything up, but that will also cause the expedites because it is applied every time (unfirmed MRP generated or firmed planner controlled).

Any suggestions on how to resolve this?

Thanks,

Tom
Our company is doing a workaround by having q-time adder resources. When they know they need material in a couple days (or more) before the due date they will add this resource group. Within that group are various resources that add anywhere from 10-100 hours. It is a manual process but has been worth it in our situation to get the shipment out in time to the customer.


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We do something very similar as well, but just to compensate for the fact that the system doesn't recognize queue time for the first operation in a given assembly. It was scheduling upper level assemblies to start seconds after lower level components were completed, allowing no time for kitting. We tie the materials and assemblies to that 'Kit' operation which is just like you stated, a queue operation (backflush, zero cost).

Rob Bucek
Production Control Manager
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 311
Mobile: (715)896-0590
FAX: (715)284-4084
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From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Lisser, Jennifer
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 8:02 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: MRP settings: Need Planning Guru help!



Our company is doing a workaround by having q-time adder resources. When they know they need material in a couple days (or more) before the due date they will add this resource group. Within that group are various resources that add anywhere from 10-100 hours. It is a manual process but has been worth it in our situation to get the shipment out in time to the customer.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]