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MRP Action proposals and hierarchy

  • 2 March 2022
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Userlevel 5
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Hi Community 

we are using IFS APP 10 and using the process ‘shop order infinite scheduling’ to schedule our production plans. we are trying to establish a best practice for reviewing and actioning action proposals generated when we run MRP weekly. Currently only a few of the action proposals and actioned and the rest generally ignored.

does anyone know of documentation that can identify a best practice or standard approach to take when reviewing action proposals?

I'm guessing not all action proposals are equal? so I am trying to identify the hierarchy of importance so our planning department can filter those action proposals on the MRP action proposal workbench. 

any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

kind regards

Jamie 

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Best answer by majose 2 March 2022, 12:30

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Userlevel 6
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Hi Jamie,

Perhaps you have a look at this one first: MRP Action Proposals Workbench - managing early shop orders | IFS Community

 

My priority list is:

Late Order - Potential shortage situation. Take actions!

Negative Projected Onhand (goes a little bit hand in hand with Late Order, but Late Order also considers Safety Stock)

Early Order - if it is many days too early and we are pretty overloaded - then perhaps we can schedule it later 

Remove Order - Hmmm if we remove this supply order... can this have positive impact on lower levels where we have “Late Orders”

Supply is Past Due - will the open order ever come? Do we need to set a new due date?

Plan Supply is Past Due - Is there a large demand in the near future that has got exploded down through the BOM and created an unrealistic plan

Plan Supply Start Date is Past Due - similar as above

Demand is Past Due - Why do we have demands in past due? Will we ship it out through the door soon?

The other ones are less important in my eyes.

But it is also important to think about where we are in the BOM. In the screens you have the Low Level Code column - please use it. If you have time:

  1. Let the manufacturing planners go through their MRP Action Messages first, and let them take actions
  2. Then run MRP again
  3. Now - open the “MRP Action Proposal gate” for the buyers

Above could be useful for you if you want to take control of the MRP Engine. Usually hard structured work pays off - you will get less MRP messages and more important, you will understand IFS MRP better.

Good Luck,

Mats 

Userlevel 5
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Hi @majose 

thankyou for your priority list and explanation of each message, a structured approach is something we at looking to implement in order to improve the MRP data and reduce the number of Action messages generated. 

you suggested letting the manufacturing planners go through their MRP action messages first to let them take action. is there a logical approach they should take such as start at the top of a structure (sales part) and work they way down the structure?

kind regards

Jamie 

Userlevel 6
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Hi Jamie,

Let say there is quite of few Remove Orders messages on sales parts and their immediate sub-assemblies, but then at level 5 or 6, the buyers are struggling with a lot of Late Order messages, then the approach could be like:

Run Selective MRP by low level code. And for example if you think it is a good idea to run MRP for low level code 0 to 2 in one go, you can specify it like this: 0..2

Note the dots

And then you can work through the action messages according to my prioritized list above, and take actions upon them. (In this example we will cancel a few shop orders coz they are not needed anymore)

Then you perhaps run a full site MRP

Or

a Selective MRP for levels: 3..10

(in this example many of the Late Orders will not exist because they were induced by shop orders downstream, which now are canceled)

I think it is a little bit of balance act for you

Lots of MRP jobs to manage and think about. BUT an MRP plan in very good shape

VERSUS

A single site MRP with MRP messages that are probably not aligned when you consider the complete BOM

Where is the golden mean for you?

-Mats

 

 

Userlevel 5
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Hi @majose 

our current situation look s a little like this.

We run MRP once a week and it generates 37,500 Action messages, break down below

  • 22,891 No Demand Exists
  • 5,645   Not Buildable
  • 414      Late Order
  • 743      Early Order
  • 399      Remove Order
  • 595      Supply is Past Due
  • 577      Plan Supply is Past Due
  • 103      Planned Supply start date is past due
  • 3,299   Demand is Past Due
  • 2,834   Other

this is a combination of manufacturing and purchasing MRP action messages at all level codes and site wide, we have a team of 3 production planners and 3 buyers. Currently we are only actioning a small fraction of action messages, for example this week only 117 MRP action proposals got actioned. 

 

would you suggest we take the approach you suggested before and start by filtering out ‘Part  Type’ Manufactured , ‘Level Code’ 0..2 and work our way down the priority list of MRP action proposals. Re-Run MRP and then let the buyers use the MRP APW to action the Purchasing and Purchase (raw) messages?

regards

Jamie 

Userlevel 6
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Sounds like a good plan Jamie :thumbsup:  See how it works for you. But the fact that you initiated this discussion in your company shows you are taking this seriously - well trained users in this area is the key to success.

And when it comes to Early Order, you know MRP wants everything to be Just In Time, but in real life you might want to level your production. So as long as you know what you are doing, you can live with quite a few Early Order messages.

I think it would be good if you spend a little bit of time on why you get that many ‘Not Buildable’ messages.

When it comes to all those No Demand Exists… all customers are getting tons of this message. Perhaps an action point here is to change Part Status to “Demands Not Allowed” for some of your spare parts from the 1970ties if you know what I mean.

Future glory ahead

-Mats

 

Userlevel 5
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@majose thanks for your help and suggestions, I will start to implement this approach right away to create an structured process for handling MRP action messages.

I'm sure I will come across situations I am not failure with and hope you can share some off your vast knowledge in the future.

Kind regards

Jamie