We are in an unusual spot here. Using 10.2.400, we have gone live with about 10% of our business.
Since that decision, we have seen one part number that, if we accepted purchasing suggestions, would grow our inventory far beyond what we would expect in our current setup.
This happens on one part (we are looking at a second item which is exhibiting similar behavior), and is a recent development.
Reaching out to the folks here to see if anyone has seen anything similar. I’ve attached the time phase screen showing what the system is doing.
This is a significant issue, if we honored these suggestions, the increase in inventory would be 1/2m. Not acceptable.
Thanks in advance, great community here. Had to limit the time phase views due to our data restrictions (can’t publish part numbers publicly), but it shows three consecutive pages that illustrate the inventory growth.
All PO’s have quantities locked, but dates unlocked. Checked that already.
My quick observation is that you have all unfirm jobs where your POs aren’t meeting the dates of when the jobs need to start. Your PO dates maybe locked but if you don’t have the demand at the time the jobs need it, you will get a suggestion.
Also, what are the parameters that you have set for Safety Stock and Min On Hand? Do you Days of Supply set up for this material? Is your lead time for this material actually 220 days?
The dates are not locked on the PO’s, only the quantities. The material is not constrained. The expectation (and it works this way on almost all of our parts) is that Epicor will suggest lining up the dates in the best way possible while keeping inventory within parameters (in this case, no safety stock, no min on hand, days of supply are zero). We generally run this part weekly, and want material signals aligned with that plan. The jobs do meet need, but the material dates don’t line up with the job start dates. Inventory keeps growing (if we followed the suggestions).
Our lead time is 220 days. We use a five day calendar, that is 43 weeks. That’s pretty average for our lead times, and we have several parts that have much longer lead times.
Sorry about the confusion with the locked dates/quantities. What is happening is your job suggestions are not lining up with your PO dates. Your job suggestion dates are sooner. I’m not sure what your jobs look like for this material. Does the job have multiple operations? If so, when is this material needed in the process? Right now it is associated with Operation 10. If it is not needed until a later operation, you will want to change this in the method. Perhaps that will align your POs with the job suggestions.
This is core raw material, it is specified for the first operation on the (lengthy) routing.
The job suggestion dates should be for the start dates of the job. The inventory should not continually increase.
We see this working for the most part perfectly. Just not on this item. This is not a system-wide problem, it is specific to a couple of parts.
Snip below is of a part that works properly. The 12 piece carryover is expected, we run this part in fixed quantities of 15. What would not be acceptable is a constant buildup of inventory, which is what we are seeing on the item in the original post.
Happy to help, Gil. From what I am seeing, the issue is being caused by the PO material coming in later than when the job needs them. It is masking the real issue (see below). You posted 3 pages but I’ll bet there is more than that.
Also, I noticed that your purchase order quantities didn’t match the job quantities. I would suggest that the PO order release quantities match the unfirm job quantities (they don’t).I believe that is where the extra material is coming into play, not the PO suggestions. The PO suggestions are the exact quantity of the PO it references, then there is an expedite PO suggestions to reduce the quantity. So the PO suggestions are really for expediting them.
Are any of the PO suggestions new PO suggestions. Looks like they are all expedite suggestions. Any super long receive times? Have you run generate PO suggestions with the Regenerative option and gotten the same results?
I get what you area saying here, but it still isn’t making sense. My thought is that the PO should line up with demand in terms of receipt date - regardless of quantity. I would expect to see growth in inventory when the receipt quantity does not exactly match the planned job release, but that should only occur up to the point of the next planned receipt.
What is throwing me about this item is that it is planning differently. We have many items that are in a very similar situation (quantities coming in from our supplier are affected by THEIR lot sizes), but the growth in inventory is handled. It is only heavy until the next planned receipt. That was shown on the second screenshot I posted here. On that item, the overages are shown, but it is due to the fact that we have set job release quantities - and so does our supplier. The overage is because we can’t change the lot sizes coming in. But it is limited to the difference between the actual quantity needed and the size of the release.
There are both expedite/delay and new purchase suggestions. That is the part that I do not understand. We are fully covered without buying additional material, and the PO quantities are locked. I expect date changes only, with no suggestions to buy new material.
I did test the suggestions through MRP (without running a separate suggestion generation). The results are unchanged. I was looking at suggestions last week after regenerating, and wanted to eliminate that as a factor.
Wondering if this could be solved iteratively, but I’m not sure if that would work out like I’m expecting (replan just this item after editing PO’s).
In the first one you posted though, the PO quantities change and don’t match up with the job quantities. The second part has matching job quantities and PO quantities.
Beth – I unlocked all the PO quantities and dates, and re-ran MRP. The excess inventory went away.
From what I can tell, it is possible that the misaligned incoming material quantities accumulated over time. I just don’t understand why it doesn’t self-correct – in the environment we are describing, the overage should be no higher than the locked PO quantity, and that inventory should bleed down until the next demand brings us below zero. Then, the next release should schedule to come in for that need (even if it is a few pieces heavy).
Hi Gil, I was wondering if you found a solution for this issue. We are not running MRP, I am considering buying it tho.
New Job and PO suggestions in our system trigger even if we have inventory and/or open jobs/POs. Epicor support says that is because we have our parts as make or purchase direct. We dont stock parts or materials. I cant fathom why they are not considering inventory and/or open orders/jobs. I was wondering if it would be different in MRP.
Make Direct and Purchase Direct parts are parts that should not be in inventory as the system will ignore what is on hand. Make Direct parts should go directly from one job to the job that is requiring them, never touching inventory. Purchase Direct parts get issued to the job they are purchased for once they are received…again, they do not touch inventory.
In a Purchase Direct situation, nothing is going to look at stock in inventory. It’s going to create a PO suggestion, even if you have enough of that material on hand in inventory. Likewise, a Job Suggestion will occur for a Make Direct material even if there is on hand quantities in inventory and/or another job that would fulfill it with the demand set as make to stock.
