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MRP run and the planner's workbench

One run works out what to make and what to buy for a plant, level by level through your bills of materials. It works from customer orders, open production orders, stock and safety stock. The planner checks each proposal on one workbench and orders it.

PLANSFrom Growth

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The problem it solves

An order is late because one bought-out part was not ordered in time.
Purchase raises orders from memory or a spreadsheet, so some items are short and others pile up.
Nobody can say why a purchase order for 500 pieces was raised, or which customer order it was for.
Sub-assemblies are planned only after the main item is short, so the delay is found too late.

How it works

Set each item's Order Size (As Needed, Fixed Quantity, At Least or In Multiples Of) and its Safety Stock on the item's Inventory tab. Lead times come from the bill of materials and the supplier.
Open Planning > MRP Runs, create a run, choose the plant and the Days Ahead (30 to start with) and press Run MRP.
The run walks your items level by level. For each one it adds up what is due out (customer orders and the components of production orders) against stock and what is due in. It proposes to make or buy wherever stock would fall below the safety stock.
Each proposal says Make or Buy, how much, when it is needed and when to start or order. Proposals that should already have started are marked late in red. A make proposal adds its own components to the next level.
Open Planning > Planner's Workbench. Change a quantity, a start date or the supplier, then press Order. Make proposals become confirmed production orders; buy proposals go on one draft purchase order per supplier.
Press Set Aside for a proposal you do not want, or Put Back to bring it back. Run Again replaces only the proposals not decided yet.

Everything it does

Item planning

Order Size: As Needed (the default), Fixed Quantity, At Least or In Multiples Of, with the Order Quantity
Safety Stock: the run keeps at least this much in stock
Shown on the item's Inventory tab to planners

The run

One plant per run, from today over Days Ahead (30 to start with)
Demand: customer deliveries, components of confirmed production orders, other moves out of the plant, and safety stock
Supply: stock on hand in the plant and every move due in, such as purchase receipts and production orders
Level by level through the bills of materials, up to 25 levels deep
Make when the item has a bill of materials and is not set to be bought only; otherwise Buy from the item's supplier
Start date: the need date less the manufacturing lead time and days to prepare, or the supplier's lead time and the Entity's purchase lead time
Each run is numbered MRP/0001 and records who ran it and when, with notes
With Scale's master schedule, forecasts of weeks not yet firm are added as demand

Proposals

Make or Buy, item, quantity, Short By, Needed On, Start / Order On, Late
The bill of materials for make; the supplier and its price for buy
Why: the shortage and what it is for. What It Is For lists each demand: Customer Order, Component of an Order, Component of a Proposal, Forecast or Safety Stock. Each has the document, date and quantity
Substitute: for a buy proposal, an alternate component in stock that could cover it instead
States Proposed, Ordered and Set Aside, with the production order or purchase order it became

The workbench

Opens on proposals To Decide, grouped Make / Buy
Filters Late, Make, Buy; group by supplier or by week to start
Quantity, start date and supplier can be changed until the proposal is ordered
Order on several lines at once; a buy proposal without a supplier is refused with the item named
Purchase lines take the supplier's price list, or the proposal's price when the list has none

Who uses it

PlannerSets order sizes and safety stock, runs MRP, decides and orders the proposals.

Production ManagerDoes everything a planner does and follows late proposals.

SupervisorCan see the runs and proposals, but not change or order them.

Purchase OfficerConfirms the draft purchase orders the workbench made, one per supplier.

Where you use it

Web: Manufacturing > Planning > MRP Runs and Planner's Workbench
Web: the item's Inventory tab (Planning, Stock to Keep)
Not in the SmartMy Manufacturing app
Not on a timer: a run is started by the planner, it does not run by itself overnight

What you control

Settings

Per item: Order Size, As Needed to start with; Order Quantity; Safety Stock, 0 to start with
Per run: plant (the Entity's first plant to start with) and Days Ahead, 30 to start with
Lead times: the bill of materials' manufacturing lead time and days to prepare, the supplier's lead time and the Entity's purchase lead time

Questions

Does MRP plan sub-assemblies as well?

Yes. A make proposal adds its components as demand on the next level. So sub-assemblies and their parts are planned in the same run, up to 25 levels deep.

Can we see why a purchase was proposed?

Yes. Each proposal's What It Is For tab lists every demand it covers, with dates and quantities. That is the customer order, the production order's component, a proposal above it, a forecast or safety stock.

Does MRP raise purchase orders by itself?

No. The planner presses Order. Buy proposals go on one draft purchase order per supplier, which purchase confirms as usual. Make proposals become confirmed production orders.

Can it plan from forecasts?

With Scale, yes. The master schedule's forecasts for weeks not yet firm are added as demand, above the customer orders already booked. On Growth the run plans from orders, stock and safety stock.

What happens when we run it again?

Proposals not yet decided are replaced by the new ones. Proposals already ordered or set aside stay as they are.

Can it plan two plants together?

A run covers one plant. Run one for each plant; each sees its own stock and orders.

Related features

PLANNING, QUALITY AND COSTAlternate components and substitutesList the items that can stand in for a component of a bill of materials, with how many replace one and in what order. When a production order is short, one button uses the alternates in stock. The MRP run tells the planner when an alternate could save a purchase.PRODUCTION AND JOB WORKBills of materials, production orders and work ordersKeep each item's bill of materials with its components and the steps on your machines. A production order reserves the material, lays out the work orders step by step and puts the finished goods into stock at cost.PRODUCTION AND JOB WORKSales, purchase and CRM: from lead to goods receivedFollow enquiries through your pipeline, send quotations, take sales orders and invoice them, raise purchase orders and receive the goods into your plant. Every invoice and bill names its plant.LINES AND SCHEDULINGForecasts from sales historyMake a forecast per item, plant and month from your past deliveries to customers, by average or by trend, or type it by hand. Forecasts feed the master schedule and, above the orders already in, the MRP run.LINES AND SCHEDULINGMaster schedule and rough-cut capacityBuild a week-by-week plan of what to make for each item and plant from your forecasts, customer orders and stock. Change the plan where you know better, firm the sure weeks into production orders, and check the load on each machine before you commit.LINES AND SCHEDULINGScheduling board: jobs across machines and daysEvery machine is a row and every day a column, with each job as a bar. Drag a job to move it in time or to an allowed machine. See each day's load against the machine's hours, and replan a machine in one click.

See your shop floor on it.

Tell us what you make, how many machines and people you run, and how production is recorded today. We will set up a line with you and run a job on the terminal.

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