Stop getting Increase PO Suggestions, just get New PO Suggestions

Epicor ERP 10
1

We get suggestions from E10 to increase open PO’s daily. We would prefer to get new PO Suggestions, and leave it up to the buyer to decide if an open PO can be increased. As it is now, the buyers must research every increase suggestion because if the suggestion is ignored we may not buy what we need. Is there a setting somewhere or a checkbox that would disable Increase PO Suggestions? Does anyone have a workaround?

2

Have you tried locking the quantity on the PO releases?

3

Hi Nancy,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, we have tried that, but locking the release removes the PO Line from MRP consideration if the PO needs to be cancelled, expedited or postponed. We don’t want that to happen.

Rick Stannard
IT Project Manager
Office 860-599-6203
Mobile 860-405-4430

4

Hi Rick,

I think others have clicked on the Lock Qty check box to prevent changes to the current PO. Some have gone so far as to write a BPM to do it to every PO.

Mark W.

5

I believe there are 3 different ‘locks’
Locking the release is just that
Locking the date prevents move date notices
Locking the Qty allows move date notices but not increase/decrease messages (or at least that is the way it is described in help….)

6

You could also experiment with Days of Supply, Reschedule In and Out Delta days, and Minimum/Multiple Order quantities. The lock quantity field works too, but you noticed that it would never suggest a cancellation. In many cases, the PO cannot be cancelled without incurring a charge from the supplier, so use the lock accordingly.

7

Thanks for the reply Matt. We will try those things.

Rick Stannard
IT Project Manager
Office 860-599-6203
Mobile 860-405-4430

8

huh. I didn’t know that locking the quantity on release also causing elimination of cancel PO suggestions. That doesn’t seem right… a cancel suggestion certainly isn’t the same as a quantity suggestion IMO.

Nancy

9

Hi Nancy,

Seems strange, but here is the verbiage from the Help screen.
Lock Qty
Select this check box to indicate that this purchase order line release should be “locked,” and not be considered by the Process MRP program when it generates PO Suggestions. Clear the check box if the Process MRP program should include this release in its calculation to generate PO Suggestions.

Rick Stannard
IT Project Manager
Office 860-599-6203
Mobile 860-405-4430

10

I agree - locking the QTY on a PO should not preclude MRP from processing demand requirements and generating suggestions. It should only avoid suggestions on THAT PO.
here are my notes for managing po suggestions… (v9)

Best way to reduce NEW suggestions on PO’s
• Mrp will accumulate requirements specifically for qty and date. Separate demands due on same day will generate separate requirements. If there is no lot sizing rule then each requirement will garner a PO suggestion.
• Setup proper planning parameters
o Ask, What is the real best lot size
o Find out what is high volume time and plan around it
o Believe it or not, use Minimum Inventory and Safety stock
o Set DaysOfSupply to Something > 0

Best way to handle large numbers of Suggestions in NewPOSuggestions screen
• Setup GroupBY in list view
• Setup Suppliers on parts beforehand

Best way to reduce change suggestions In/Out Increase/Decrease on PO’s
Planning time fence (all actions time and qty)
Reschedule In/Out time delta (only time actions)
• Can you really ask the supplier today for a part due tomorrow?
• Basically a “the horses are out of the barn” – stabilizing action
• Simply ignore actions on planned/releases within the time frame
• No changes – no actions on suggestions and no unfirm jobs
• It will PLAN when items are necessary, just not re-plan/suggest.
• Eliminates items from mrp / planning workbench
o Eliminating JOB eliminates all suggestions for job

Short Planning Horizon days
• calendar days (not plant days) must be multiples of lot multiple/lot min
• production leaves 10% of production time available to squeeze in a small lot
• so set the horizon to the frozen fence or production lead time
• Min/Max/Safety rqmts, if inventory is 0, are immediate and will fall in the horizon days fence
o This is different than START MIN QTY which uses only OP-10 constrained materials
o to see if enough is available to start the minimum qty and if so, splits the jobs
o Requires LeadTimeCalc and constrained materials flags

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11

In Epicor 9 we were able to suppress all Change Suggestions for either PartPlant or by PartClass Plant by setting the Planning Time Fence. The Data Dictionary Field Description reads:

“Days out from the current date when dates on jobs, PO, TO cannot be changed”

In Epicor 9 I know this worked in suppressing Change suggestions, however after upgrading to 10 this field doesn’t seem to do anything and we have not been able to find any way to suppress PO Change Suggestions. I filed call with Epicor Support reporting this behavior, but I couldn’t convince them HOW this was supposed to work much less to get a fix.
If anyone from Epicor reads this, maybe this can be fixed.
The Planning Time Fence was a powerful way to keep the noise down.
I am going to open a new call asking specifically what the purpose of the Planning Time Fence field is and noting the data dictionary field description and E9 behavior.

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