The Dampener Period, Rescheduling Period and Time Bucket on Items

This is what happens in the video

Three planning parameters in Business Central control how the planning engine decides when to move, reschedule, or cancel orders: the time bucket, the rescheduling period, and the dampener period. The time bucket applies only to reorder point parameters. The rescheduling period applies only to lot-for-lot parameters. The dampener period applies to both planning methods, including order-to-order.

The time bucket groups demand into periods and plans at the start of each period. This creates fewer planning lines and works well with fixed reorder point items where exact timing is less critical.

The dampener period acts as a buffer that decides whether an order should be moved at all. If the required move is smaller than the dampener period and there is no safety stock breach, the planning worksheet will not suggest moving the order.

The rescheduling period for lot-for-lot items decides whether the engine reschedules an existing order or cancels it and creates a new one. If the move stays within the rescheduling period, the existing order is rescheduled. If it exceeds the period, the order is cancelled and a new order is suggested.

The three planning fields and where they apply

On the item card and the SKU card you will find three fields that influence how the planning engine handles supply orders: the dampener period, the rescheduling period, and the time bucket.

It is important to know which parameters each field relates to:

• Time bucket relates only to reorder point parameters.
• Rescheduling period relates only to lot-for-lot parameters.
• Dampener period relates to all of them, including order-to-order. This field stays active across the different planning methods.

How time buckets work for reorder point items

Take an example where you have existing demand and three purchase orders already in the system as supply, each with a lead time of 30 days. Since the last time you ran the planning worksheet, the supply has changed, so you expect the engine to react. When you look at the expected inventory with the new demand and the existing orders, you can already see that there will be safety stock breaches.

For a reorder point item, the planning engine divides all the demand into time buckets and plans at the start of each time bucket. The time bucket is the first field on the item card. The first real trigger point appears at the start of the next time bucket after inventory drops below the reorder point.

The purpose is to create fewer planning lines that result in changes. If you plan at each time bucket start, it is easier to use a fixed reorder point, because it is not that critical to receive the item at an exact time.

How the dampener period decides whether to move an order

In the example, the planning engine would need to move the purchase orders from their current date to the trigger point, a move of 11 days.

The dampener period determines whether that move happens:

• If the dampener period is set to less than 11 days, the engine moves the order and reschedules it in the planning journal.
• If the dampener period is more than 11 days and there is no safety stock breach, the engine will not suggest moving the order. The action simply does not appear in the planning worksheet.

The dampener period works as a buffer to handle whether or not to move items.

How the rescheduling period works for lot-for-lot items

Now take the same setup, but with a trigger on safety stock and the planning method set to lot-for-lot instead of reorder point. This creates a backward-planned purchase order.

For lot-for-lot, the engine looks at the rescheduling period and compares it to the time it needs to move the order:

• If the required move is within the rescheduling period, the engine reschedules the existing order.
• If the required move is more than the rescheduling period, the engine cancels the purchase order and suggests creating a new order.

Together, the rescheduling period and the dampener period control whether the planning engine moves orders, reschedules them, or cancels them and creates new ones.

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