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Question

How to enable overlap planning between Shop Order Requisitions in MRP without changing product structures?

  • August 20, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 91 views

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Hi all,

We have a situation where MRP plans manufactured parent and component parts sequentially, while in reality production can start before the supplying shop order is fully completed.

Example:

  • Part A is a manufactured component.
  • Part B is a manufactured parent part that uses 1 piece of Part A.
  • The routing for both Part A and Part B results in approximately 1 hour lead time per piece.
  • For a shop order quantity of 40 pieces, the total lead time becomes approximately 1 week.

As a result, MRP plans:

  1. Shop Order for Part A from Monday to Friday.
  2. Shop Order for Part B starting the following Monday.

This means MRP assumes all 40 pieces of Part A must be completed before Part B can start.

In reality, once the first pieces of Part A are completed, production of Part B could already begin. Therefore, we would like MRP to generate requisitions and planned shop orders with some degree of overlap.

Additional information:

  • The product structures and routings have been migrated from our previous ERP system and are already in use.
  • We would prefer not to redesign the product structures or routings.
  • All materials in the product structures are linked to specific operations because multiple work centers and operations are involved in the routings of both Part A and Part B.

Question:

Is there any standard IFS Cloud functionality, parameter, planning method, transfer batch concept, operation-material relationship setting that allows MRP to plan overlap between manufacturing shop order requisitions without modifying the existing product structures?

How do other companies handle situations where downstream production can start before the supplying shop order is fully completed?

4 replies

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  • August 21, 2026

Hi,

Few clarification questions. 

  1. can product structure and routing of A be completely eliminated and keep only B? meaning you have a one routing and one product structure instead of two?
  2.  Is it possible to have smaller lot sizes ( Max or multiple lot size) so that MRP will split up and eventually plan the down stream for the max lot size ( in above case it could be 10 instead of 40 in that case? 

Thanks

 


matt.watters
Ultimate Hero (Partner)
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  • Ultimate Hero (Partner)
  • August 21, 2026

Adding on to the comments by ​@Vulcan 

MRP cannot plan for the requisition end date of A to be later than the start date of B.

One idea is to make A a phantom part (P or K) and change the routing for B to include the operations for the production of A. For example, operations 10, 20, and 30 would be for producing A and the production of B would start at operation 40. Then operation 40 would be set with an overlap of X units, scheduling op 40 to start after X units of op 30 have been completed.


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  • Author
  • Sidekick (Partner)
  • August 25, 2026

Hello Vulcan, 

 

1: That would be the best sollution, I agree with that. But because the product structures/ DOP structure are built, this sollution is not desired at this moment + there is a desire to plan both parts seperatly. 
2: These parts are DOP/MTO driven, so max/min/incremental lot sizes are not taken in account. 

At this moment I only see the option to manually postpone Part B so the customer is creating the overlap manually. 

Kind regards, 
Willem


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  • Author
  • Sidekick (Partner)
  • August 25, 2026

Hello Matt, 

There is a requirement to plan both parts seperatly, So the customer wants to have the option to manually reschedule both part A & B seperatly. 

​​​​​Otherwise the best solution would be to create 1 structure and routing for part A and B. 

Kind regards, 

Willem