Material Planning (MRP)

Production → Planning works out what you need to buy and make, and when.

What a run looks at

• Demand: open sales-order lines shipped from stock, and the materials open production orders still need.
• Supply: stock on hand, open purchase-order lines, and the output open production orders have still to make.
• Settings: each item's safety stock, reorder quantity, lead time and preferred supplier, and each BOM's lead time.

Choose a horizon (how many days ahead to plan) and click Run planning.

How it plans

Items are planned level by level, so finished products come before the sub-assemblies and parts they use. For each item: needs, minus stock on hand and supply already on its way, kept at or above safety stock, gives the net requirement. This is rounded up to the reorder quantity and dated back from the need date by the lead time. A planned production order then adds demand for its components on its start date.

Each planned order shows its quantity, need date and start date, its value, its supplier or BOM, and the demand it covers.

Exceptions

• Late — even if it started today, the order would not arrive by the date it is needed.
• Expedite — an existing purchase or production order arrives after it is needed. Bring it forward.
• No supplier — a bought item has no preferred supplier. Pick one on the planned order before you firm it.
• Cycle — a BOM contains itself somewhere down its structure. Fix the BOM.

Firming

Select planned orders and click Firm:

• planned purchases become draft purchase orders, one per supplier;
• planned manufacturing becomes draft production orders.

Dismiss planned orders you don't want. You can firm or dismiss only from the latest run. Earlier runs are kept in Run history for reference.