Hi Sarah,

First - do you really reserve components “ASAP” to your created shop orders? Or perhaps you wait with creating your shop orders until close their scheduled start date? Well, you almost know me after all DDMRP training I usually send back a couple of questions.

What you can look into is our functionality for Shop Order Auto processing. In Manufacturing Standards Basic Data you have the Shop Order Process Types.

You can define that you would like to:

Create Shop Orders - x number of days prior start date

Release Shop Orders  - x number of days prior start date

Reserve Shop Orders  - x number of days prior start date (and of course - the components must be in stock in order to reserve the shop order component lines)

Then you can define and setup a schedule for when you want to run “Auto Processing of Shop Order”

If you look into this and play with this in a test database I’m sure you will understand.

***

In general when it comes to DDMRP and planning and execution it is good to work in the pages:

• Demand Driven Planning for Parts (tip - use conditional formatting to color the zones in a nice way)

• Demand Driven Execution for Parts (tip - use conditional formatting to color the zones in a nice way)

I mean in DDMRP you prioritize by buffer status. You want to protect the buffers. It is different from the normal mrp world where everything is by due date.

-Mats 

Mats,

Thank you! We do have a few additional questions for you:

1. For the Shop Order Processing, how do you get it to run? Do you create a special event or is it a scheduled data base task?
2. Also, you mentioned that all components must be available to reserve:
   1. If we have it scheduled to reserve the day before the start date, and all components are NOT available at the time it tries to reserve, will it reserve the components that we do have, and then continue checking daily and auto reserve once the missing components come in?
   2. Or will it not reserve anything if all components are not available? 
   3. If it does not reserve anything when something is missing, will it continue checking daily to see when all material is available? 

Thanks again for your help!

Sarah

Mats,

Thank you! We do have a few additional questions for you:

1. For the Shop Order Processing, how do you get it to run? Do you create a special event or is it a scheduled data base task?
2. Also, you mentioned that all components must be available to reserve:
   1. If we have it scheduled to reserve the day before the start date, and all components are NOT available at the time it tries to reserve, will it reserve the components that we do have, and then continue checking daily and auto reserve once the missing components come in?
   2. Or will it not reserve anything if all components are not available? 
   3. If it does not reserve anything when something is missing, will it continue checking daily to see when all material is available? 

Thanks again for your help!

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

If you read my previous reply one more time and then I add some more details that I forgotten to add….

In my previous reply I wrote:

“What you can look into is our functionality for Shop Order Auto processing. In Manufacturing Standards Basic Data you have the Shop Order Process Types.

You can define that you would like to:

Create Shop Orders - x number of days prior start date

Release Shop Orders  - x number of days prior start date

Reserve Shop Orders  - x number of days prior start date ”

I should have written: … x number of days...y number of days z number of days. Where typically x is larger than y, and y is larger than z.

What you then must do, is to connect the manufactured parts you want to control with a specific Process Type. You do that in Manufacturing Part Attributes screen. You will find the Process Type column there.

After that, when MRP/DDMRP/Master Scheduling creates Shop Order Requisitions, it stamps the Process Type on the Shop Order Requisitions. So you will see the Process Type on the Shop Order Requisition screens as well. And also you will see it on the Shop Order screens to.

The Shop Order Auto processing, which is a job, just like MRP, that can be scheduled and run for example every night after MRP has completed.

The shop order auto processing should reserve as much as is available, if I remember correctly. It should behave the same way as it does when you try to reserve a single Shop Order from the shop order screen.

Hope this helps.

-Mats

Mats,

Thanks for the clarification and further details! 

The auto processing will reserve the material that is available, but what happens when only part of the material is available? Will the system continue to watch for when the material comes in and reserve the remaining material when it arrives?

Thanks,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

The shop order auto processing will continue to watch if there is anything remaining to reserve. And try to reserve this when there is enough unreserved inventory onhand. 

But you can of course work with the more manual reservation process as well Just don’t forget about that, even if it is nice to let the system do the job… You might want to reserve a shop order to THE golden customer manually if it has high priority.

(Actually I am on a long vacation… 3 weeks more...)

Cheers,

Mats

Mats - Thanks so much for your response and sorry to bother you while on vacation! 

Don’t answer this question now, but when you get back! 

Is there also a similar process that can be performed for work orders? We were able to implement the auto res on the Shop Orders thanks to your direction above. We now just need a solution for our work orders! 

Thanks for being our DDMRP hero!

All the best,

Sarah