Important fields in the Planning Template and Planning User Setup

The planning templates in the planning solution control how the MRP engine calculates demand and supply, which items it triggers on, and how it builds suggestions into the reverse planning worksheet. The planning templates and the planning user setup contain almost the same fields, and the values transfer automatically from one to the other when you run a plan.

You set the calculation interval with a start date and an end date, and you can use formulas or calculation periods so the interval differs per item. You define which demands and supplies to include, and the system mixes them in date order much like drawing a graphical profile.

You can plan across companies and tenants, so you can sit in a sales company and plan inventory in another company. The “trigger on actual demands” option speeds up planning because items with no demand are skipped entirely. The “trigger on end inventory” option only looks at the inventory at the end date of the period, so an item that dips below safety stock during the period but recovers by the end date will not appear in the journal.

Planning templates and planning user setup are nearly identical

The planning templates and the planning user setup only have small differences. Basically they look the same, and the fields transfer automatically from one to the other when you run a plan. Detailed videos cover all the specific fields, so this article focuses on the most important ones.

When you start from the simple MRP using a template such as “find critical items”, you can look up the list of planning templates filtered on planning features. You can also open the full planning template list from the menu. There you find templates for move demands, direct replenishment, and overstock items as well. The sorting on each template is controlled by its sorting number.

The calculation interval defines what you plan between

On the calculation interval you define the start date and the end date that you calculate between. You can set these with formulas or calculation periods, so the interval can differ per item. The interval defines the range from start to end where the system taps demands and supplies, which it then shows in most of the planning features.

Choosing which demands and supplies to include

You define what to include when calculating. This works much like a graphical profile: you choose which supplies to include in the buckets and which demands to include in the buckets. The system mixes them, sorts them in date order, and figures out the result just like drawing the graphical profile.

On the demand side, the most important is the sales order, and you also have the production component if you want to include components from firm planned and released orders, the transfer order demand, and the assembly demand. Assembly appears on both demand and supply because you can split it apart as a supply and a demand.

On the supply side, purchase orders are one of the most important. You also have the production order, meaning the item you are producing, and the inbound transfer supplies. You can include the planning lines if you want to look at what is already in the planning journal, and you have the production forecast.

Planning across companies and tenants

At the bottom of the template you can choose whether to include messages, and you can select to plan from another company or another tenant. This means you can sit in a sales company and plan inventory in an inventory company, or even in another tenant. This option works across the planning features.

Key fields in the simple MRP template

The simple MRP template has several important options:

• Skip if already planned – If a line is already in the reverse planning worksheet, the system skips that specific line. This lets you build up the worksheet in stages. For example, for the same purchaser or vendor you can plan first from zero, then from safety stock, then from reorder point, and add each result to the reverse planning worksheet without overwriting earlier lines.
• Trigger point – You set whether to trigger on safety stock or reorder point, depending on how strictly you want to find critical items or safety stock items.
• Always insert line – Used especially with the direct replenishment templates, this always inserts a line even when it triggers on either of those points.
• Trigger on end inventory – Even if an item drops below safety stock or zero during the period, the system only looks at the inventory at the end date of the period. If you are above whatever you measure on at the end date, the item will not pop up in the journal.
• Trigger on actual demands order – If you have demand for the item, it comes into the journal; if you do not, the item is not planned. This makes planning much faster because items with no demand at all are skipped.

Other options, such as running for all low level codes and chaining to the next template, are covered in separate videos because they need more explanation.

Suggesting quantities and filtering items

If you want the system to suggest a quantity to order automatically, you set up a suggest quantity template. You can filter on item filters, so you can build an item filter directly in the template. If you select an existing template with a filter on the item table and use it, that filter transfers to the journal you are planning on.

You can also filter on stockkeeping units. This matters because some filtering can only be done on the stockkeeping unit card. For instance, replenishment system “transfer” cannot be set on the item card, because you cannot define it there.

Location and item filter priority

Two final settings control priority. If you check “user location has priority” and “item filter highest priority”, the location you enter in the report is remembered from your planning user setup and reused again and again. Instead of changing the location each time in the report, the system takes it from the planning user setup.

The move demand dates template

The move demand dates template is mostly the same as the others. The difference is a shipment date buffer where you can add date flexibility, similar to a safety lead time. When you push demand orders forward, you can add a buffer to give yourself some more air. Otherwise it works more or less the same.

The direct replenishment template

The direct replenishment template looks much like the simple MRP, except some fields are removed to make it simpler. The most important fields are still the same as on the other planning templates.

The same applies to the planning user setup, which contains essentially the same fields. When you run a plan with a template, the values transfer to the planning user setup card, so the fields you see when you scroll down match the template.

Q&A