The Requirement Planning Logic has been enhanced to provide the option of utilizing a Dynamic Lead Time estimate for each operation on the routing of manufactured items.  Previously all items were planned using the static lead time estimate defined in the Item Planning Details ->Options.  However, the previous approach resulted in the same lead time estimate being used for suggested orders of different quantities (for the same item), which most likely will not result in an accurate estimation of their lead times.  This enhancement enables the Requirement Planning Logic to calculate a lead team estimate for each shop order based on the size of the suggested order, the routing of the item, and the capacity of the work center.  This is an optional feature that can be enabled for a Business Node, and when enabled, it will result in all suggested orders for manufactured items to be calculated using Dynamic Lead Time estimates.

The Dynamic Lead Time for each operation of a manufactured suggested order is calculated as shown below:

Time Estimate for each Operation (Hours) = Setup Time + (Run Time x Quantity) + Queue Time

The Dynamic Lead Time (Days) = Time Estimate for each Operation (Hours) / (Working Day Hours (for work center) x Number of Resources** x Efficiency)

** If the Processing Type of the work center is Parallel

Note: It is critical that you review the accuracy of the Setup Time, Run Time, and Queue Time on each item's routing, as well as, the Working Day Hours, Number of Resources, Processing Type, and Efficiency of each work center before requesting that this feature is enabled for your business node.  

Dynamic Lead Time is calculated for each operation on each Suggested Order through the Firm Order Horizon.  Beyond the Firm Order Horizon the static lead defined in the Item Planning Details->Options is used as the estimate of the lead time for each suggested Order. 

The Dynamic Lead Time that is calculated for each operation of a suggested order is visible in the tool-tip that is displayed when hovering over each suggested order.

The Requirement Planning Logic has been enhanced with the ability to associate bill of material components to the operations where they are consumed in the item's process routing.  Previously the operations where BOM components were consumed were not considered in requirement planning which resulted in all BOM components being planned for receipt at the start time of production of each suggested order.  With this enhancement the requirement for each component on the BOM will be driven off the start time of the operation where the component is consumed.

To enable the maintenance of data specifying the operations that are associated with each BOM component, an additional optional column has been added to the end of the bom.txt and bommultilocation.txt data tables.  The operation number associated with each BOM component should be uploaded in this column.

After the BOM is updated with the associated operation numbers and a Requirement Plan is generated, the requirement of all the components will be driven off the start time of the operations where the components are consumed. Once an operation on a shop order is complete, as reported in the Shop Order Progress file (shoporderprogress.txt), no requirement will be generated for any of the components associated with the completed operation.    

The BOM Panel in Requirements Planning has been enhanced to display the operations associated to each BOM component.

The tool-tip that is displayed in the Dependent Demand column on the Item Planning Details screen has been enhanced to display the operation number of the parent item that the requirement is planned to fulfill.

The Requirement Planning Logic has been enhanced to provide support for overlapping operations. Overlapping operations is a type of production flow where a downstream operation is scheduled to start after a sufficient quantity, which is less than the full shop order quantity, has been produced by the upstream operation. In practice, overlapping operations allow the downstream operation to get a head-start on the processing of the shop order and thus enable the reduction of the overall lead time of the job.

Overlapping operations are configured by specifying on the routing of the upstream operation the degree of overlap that the downstream operation should have with it. The degree of overlap can be specified either in the Overlap Percentage or Overlap Quantity fields. Only one of the overlap fields (percentage or quantity) should be filled in.  If both of the overlap fields are filled in, then the value in the Overlap Quantity field will be used to define the degree of overlap used in planning the shop order operations.  

The Overlap Percentage specifies the percentage of the upstream operation that should be completed before starting the downstream operation.  An Overlap Percentage of 20% specifies that the downstream operation can start after 20% of the lead-time of the upstream operation has completed.  The Overlap Quantity specifies the number of units that should be completed by the upstream operation before starting the downstream operation.

The planned overlap between the operations of a suggested order can be visualized on the Capacity Grid view of the item, which can be accessed by clicking on the date displayed in the tool-tip of the suggested order. The  duration of each operation is highlighted by the dark border around the utilized timeline on the capacity grid for each work center.

Please enter a ticket with Customer Support if you are interested in implementing any of these features for the first time.  All these features are designed to work together, so enabling one will enable all of the features for you.   As stated previously, it is critical that you review the accuracy of the data on your items' routings and work centers before requesting that this feature is enabled for your business node.