Our system is continually offering unwanted PO suggestions for parts that are already on a PO.
Example part is on PO 25652 due 1/7, it will satisfy open demands.
Suggestion is for part to be ordered and delivered on 1/4.
The PO QTY and due date are locked on the Release.
Roughly 20% of our suggestions are like this.
This isn’t technically true.
Looks like your issue here is the timing. The PO arriving on the 7th won’t arrive on time for the ops scheduled to start on the 6th. Epicor wants to write a PO that will have material arrive on time.
Additionally, it looks like you have a min qty to order of 50 or the part is set up to order in mutiples of 50 (or 25 for that matter). This is what makes this look much worse. I do agree, though, that the timing is the actual issue. You have a PO cut (I am assuming manually) for 100 pieces that is due to come in 3 days too late. Hence, the suggestion for an order of 50
System is working as intended.
So Epicor is now thinking:
Epicor’s only path here is to create a suggestion to buy the parts on 4th Jan to satisfy the job demand. You’ve basically told the system it cannot do anything else.
This should really flag to your buyer to take action:
Add/Update the lead time on your parts for more helpful suggestions.
I’m the buyer. No action can be taken due to the suppliers lead time. Earliest we can get the stock here is the 7th.
Thank you for explaining the logic though. We’ll have to attack it from the job scheduling side of things.
The 1/7 PO was cut from a Suggestion 2-3 days ago when MRP spit it out. If that makes any difference. The lead times I have in the system are averaged by supplier. This supplier runs 3-6 weeks lead time depending on their load. The actual due date that ends up on the PO is usually different than what MRP expects it to be.
Maybe if I phrase my question differently. I want to be able to trust these suggestions and just send them out without drilling down and redoing MRP manually. We’re having to look at each one, research its validity to make sure it’s not a duplicated amount that’s already due 2 days later than the suggestion. Then we have to ignore or re-research it until the PO is delivered.
Is there a way to flag or highlight the suggestions that are a result of MRP being unhappy with the due date of a PO OR set a window of time where I don’t get a suggestion if the PO due date is within that window? I’ll have to reschedule 8 orders and 50 different jobs to get this to go away.
@timshuwy and his team just unveiled a new feature for 2024.2 that I THINK does what you are asking where you say, within this timeframe please don’t give me suggestions.
Without a good amount of detail around your situation I can’t say if this feature is meant to solve your exact problem, but it sounds similar to why they implemented this enhancement 
Yes… as of Kinetic 2024.2, we added a feature called “Dynamic Time Fence”… this feature sets an automatic time fence whenever you lock your PO (or job’s) schedule. If you say that the PO is locked, then MRP will no longer plan a new PO between now and the locked PO Date.
the entire purpose of this change was to resolve the problem you are talking about.
Is there a setting to enable/disable/configure Dynamic Time Fence?
I looked in our PILOT, which is at 2024.2.4, and I don’t see where this would be configured. Maybe I missed it?
Not in Part > Site > Planning
Not in Site Configuration
Not in Company Configuration
Also, cannot find it in the online help.
Site Maintenance > Planning
Below is the link to the Epicor Learning Center video for this feature:
Ah, thank you!
The checkbox was only visible in the Kinetic UI version of Site Maintenance. (I should have suspected that.)
great point… one that we are starting to forget to remind people of. We only do UI changes inside the Kinetic Browser version. New features have not been added to the Smart Client since 2021 (unless for regulatory or bug fixes). The smart client simply does not have the new features, and there are many hundreds of new features, fields, flags, and processes that are only available in the browser.
Hi Tim,
We’ve upgrade to 2024.2.7. This feature doesn’t seem to work in all cases.
Example PN 30180077
PO 25806 is locked with a due date of 2/6, but PO suggestion is still requesting a new PO on 1/28. Min on hand = 20 so the balance is below that. Is that why?
wondering… are you below safety stock? if so, it might break the rule. Otherwise, you should submit this to support.
Yes, I was below safety. It’s been working nicely since then.
