The ORDTYPE field in the ORDER table distinguishes different types of orders. The value in this field affects the database data you need to retrieve for various APS functions.
10 reserved by the Scheduler to identify planned manufacturing orders
50 supply delivery (reserved for internal use)
100 released, scheduled work order
200 customer order
210 EDI order
220 Web order
230 MPS order
240 firmed work order
245 component demand for firmed scheduled job (used in Infor APS)
250 released work order (not scheduled)
255 component demand for released scheduled job (used in Infor APS)
260 production order
270 transfer order
300 forecast order
310 replenishment/safety stock order
Retrieving the Projected Completion Date for Order X
After an order has been planned, you can retrieve the projected completion date.
(c.FLEADTIME + b.DEMAND * c.VLEADTIME) AS LEADTIME
FROM MATLPLAN000 a, INVPLAN000 b, MATL000 c
WHERE a.MATLTAG = b.MATLTAG
AND a.MATERIALID = c.MATERIALID
AND b.SCHTYPE IN (7,8)
Retrieving Late Orders for Order Type X
SELECT a.ORDERID, a.DUEDATE, b.CALCDATE
FROM ORDER000 a, ORDPLAN000 b
WHERE a.ORDERID = b.ORDERID
AND b.CALCDATE > a.DUEDATE
AND a.ORDTYPE = X
Retrieving Out-of-Range Orders
(Out-of-range orders have a promise date later than the planning horizon.)
SELECT a.ORDERID, a.DUEDATE
FROM ORDER000 a, ALTPLAN b
WHERE b.ALTNO = 0
AND a.ORDTYPE <> 10
AND DATEDIFF(hh, GETDATE(),a.DUEDATE) > b.PLANHORIZ
Retrieving Inventory Exceptions
Inventory exceptions are unused supply orders and minimum-inventory violations. To identify inventory exceptions, you must retrieve the beginning inventory level, all inventory events, past-due exceptions, expedited exceptions, and supply tolerance exceptions for a given part.
Retrieve beginning inventory for part X
SELECT STARTLEV
FROM MSLPLAN000
WHERE MATERIALID = ‘X’
Retrieve all events affecting the inventory level of part X
SELECT b.SCHDATE, b.SUPPLY, b.DEMAND,
dbo.DecodeSCHTYPE(b.SCHTYPE) as SCHTYPE,
dbo.DecodeSCHFLAGS(b.SCHFLAGS) as SCHFLAGS
FROM MATLPLAN000 a, INVPLAN000 b
WHERE a.MATLTAG = b.MATLTAG
AND a.MATERIALID = ‘X’
ORDER BY b.SCHDATE
Retrieve past-due exceptions
SELECT b.ORDERID, b.DELVDATE, b.AMOUNT, (a.FLEADTIME + a.VLEADTIME * b.AMOUNT) AS
LEADTIME
FROM MATL000 a, MATLDELV b
WHERE a.MATERIALID = b.MATERIALID
AND b.DELVDATE < GETDATE()
AND a.MATERIALID = ‘x’
UNION ALL
SELECT b.ORDERID, b.DUEDATE AS DELVDATE, b.ORDSIZE AS AMOUNT, (a.FLEADTIME +
a.VLEADTIME * b.ORDSIZE) AS LEADTIME
FROM MATL000 a, ORDER000 b
WHERE a.MATERIALID = b.MATERIALID
AND (b.FLAGS & 1) <> 0
AND b.DUEDATE < GETDATE()
AND a.MATERIALID = ‘x’
Retrieve expedited exceptions
SELECT c.ORDERID, b.SCHDATE, b.DEMAND – b.SUPPLY AS AMOUNT, (a.FLEADTIME +
a.VLEADTIME * b.DEMAND) AS LEADTIME
FROM MATL000 a, INVPLAN000 b, MATLPLAN000 c
WHERE a.MATERIALID = c.MATERIALID
AND b.MATLTAG = c.MATLTAG
AND (b.SCHTYPE = 12 OR (b.SCHFLAGS & 16) <> 0)
AND a.MATERIALID = ‘x’
Retrieve supply tolerance exceptions
SELECT b.ORDERID, c.SCHDATE, c.DEMAND, (a.FLEADTIME + a.VLEADTIME * c.DEMAND) AS
LEADTIME, e.SCHDATE AS DELVDATE
FROM MATL000 a
INNER JOIN MATLPLAN000 b ON a.MATERIALID = b.MATERIALID
INNER JOIN INVPLAN000 c ON b.MATLTAG = c.MATLTAG AND c.SCHTYPE = 3
INNER JOIN MATLPLAN000 d ON c.SUPMATLTAG = d.MATLTAG
INNER JOIN INVPLAN000 e on d.MATLTAG = e.MATLTAG AND e.SCHTYPE = 5
In general Scheduler should be run first as input to the APS Planning run. The reason for this is based upon the fact that the Scheduler is in charge of Released Jobs by default and if there are any new Release Jobs since the last planning run, you want the Scheduler to have scheduled them. In addition if the ‘Use Scheduled Times in Planning’ parameter is selected and / or you are running Finite APS you want to make sure that the Scheduler runs first.
Default sequence:
1. Run Scheduler
2. Run APS
Special case:
If you have the ‘Calculate Job Dates if Blank’ Planning Parameter selected, please note that the Scheduler needs to have non-blank job start /end dates. In this environment the sequence is as follows:
1. Run APS to populate the Blank sub-job Start / End Dates
Below are some of points that are worth taking, while implementing APS in Syteline.
1. Implementing APS is an all or nothing process. Partial effort will result in failure.
2. APS requires you to rethink your business process related to promising to customers; ordering materials and releasing work into production. Sometimes it is difficult to change old mindsets and ways of doing things.
3. APS requires that everyone is on board from management to customer service to planning to buyers to production. Resistance in any of these areas will result in failure.
4. Setting expectations is vital. APS is a tool. It provides extreme visibility. It also quickly exposes bad data and poor business process. It does not fix data and it does not fix poor business practice.
5. Allow adequate time to review your existing data model and sufficient time to pilot through the APS process. Most implementation failures can be attributed to ignoring this step.
6. Data elements: Routings – start with what you have. A significant amount of benefit can come from existing messy routings. It is only a small amount of routings that need to be high quality.
7. Data elements: BOM’s – accuracy should be higher for BOMs; but these days that is typically true.
8. Data elements: Work centers – make sure that you understand the WC / Resource Group / Resource model of APS. Limit the number of constrained (finite Resource Groups / Resources) – typically no more than 30% of resources. Start with only a single Resource Group on operations.
9. Data elements: Inventory – must be accurate and must have processes in place to keep it accurate.
10. Data elements: Past Due Customer Orders, Purchase Orders, Jobs. Complete or delete old Purchase Orders and Job Orders. Do a one-time adjustment of Past Due Customer Orders to reflect current delivery reality.
11. Data elements: Purchase Item Lead Times – review and adjust for accuracy.
12. Don’t wait until you have pristine data or you will never start. Initiate an ongoing process to keep standards current. This is NOT a one-time process; but a forever process. The process of piloting APS with your current data will immediately show you bad data. This is why is imperative to allow sufficient time in your piloting to review APS results.
13. Determine if you have the ability to negotiate Due Dates with your customers. This will dictate how useful Get ATP / Get CTP are. Make promises you can keep.
14. Limit the number of drop-ins Customer Orders.
15. Follow ‘launch control’. Don’t create Jobs manually. Don’t release jobs until APS recommends. The same is true for purchase orders.
16. Don’t ‘second guess’ the plan.
17. Follow the Dispatch Lists.
18. Monitor on a daily basis projected late Customer Orders, projected late job orders, Item Bottlenecks, Resource Bottlenecks in order to anticipate problems.
19. Record labor and material transactions timely and accurately. Close jobs in a timely manner.
There are three main tools you can use to plan with SyteLine:
MRP
APS, finite
APS, infinite (APSI)
These key factors will help you decide which planning tool best fits your needs:
Constraint behavior
Accurate times
Motivation
There are also a few secondary factors that may affect your choice. We’ll explain each below
Constraint behavior
Do you want constraints to push out plans or do you want a fixed target?
Here are the constraints that may move plans out:
Material availability
Capacity
Time on-shift
Today
APS backwards plans. If any of the first three constraints is not available between today and the due date, and it lies on the critical path, the system will push the plans out and backwards plan from the new date. If the plan is moved out, then ALL plans for that order are moved out.
For example, a user receives a customer order. If the user constrains on a material and its lead time is such that it affects the critical path, then APS will move all plans (all purchase orders, manufacturing orders for subassemblies, etc.) for the meeting the customer order out. You can turn off this constraint at the item level, but if a constraining material is not available and on the critical path, APS will move ALL plans for the end order out.
Another example. If you do not have capacity, APS will search for earlier time when you do. If you have none, it will push out the plan to find available capacity. And because the plan for manufacturing is pushed out, so are all the need dates for purchased materials. (Time on-shift works like capacity in that APS applies your times to a working calendar, if you choose, instead of a 24×7 calendar.)
The whole concept of pushing out plans is tied to the just-in-time philosophy. So if you have capacity constraints, the APS approach will minimize the inventory by synchronizing its arrival with its use. APS provides tools to see plans that are late. You can then work to resolve those issues and meet your due date. If you want any of these constraints to move your plan dates, you’re probably a candidate for APS or APSI.
However, some users do not want constraints to move out target dates. They want a fixed target for a plan. They want to see what they need to do to ship at a certain date. They want to clearly see when something is supposed to happen and will expedite and increase capacity to make it happen. These users do NOT want to see moving release dates and non-critical item pushing out the critical path; they simply want to freeze the plan until they’ve exhausted all expedite and capacity solutions.
If you want a fixed target, you are a candidate for APSI or MRP. Generally, such users have the following characteristics
To-order environment with revenue targets and cyclical order bookings
Most of their products are engineer-to-order, assemble-to-order, or make-to-order. They often sell configured products so they can’t make them ahead of time and level their production. The best they can do is plan for common sub-assemblies and purchased parts using planning BOMs and forecasts or dummy MPS lines with a kit of these common items.
These users have quarterly revenue targets and most of the order bookings come later in the quarter. There’s a rush to sell and ship product to meet the revenue targets at the end of the quarter, then a slow period at the beginning of the next quarter.
These users don’t want their plans to move. They want a fixed target and will do whatever it takes to get it out the door.
Material, not capacity, is the critical constraint
Backlogged orders or late shipments are most often caused by material shortages. Such users would rather get material in, even if months early, than experience a shortage. Variability in lead time only adds to this issue. A lean, JIT environment poses too much risk of material shortages for these users.
Capacity is not an issue for these users. They only need to know WHEN they need the capacity and HOW MUCH. Then they’ll make sure it happens.
No negotiation power with customers
Users who have little negotiation power with their customers usually have the following characteristics:
Often a majority of their business comes from a handful of customers.
The customers require them to feed their production schedule, and if they’re late they’re heavily fined.
It’s cheaper to expedite than miss the customer deadlines.
A highly competitive environment and meeting due dates is critical.
In these situations, the user wants a fixed target for production. They want to know when they need materials in and when they need to increase capacity. They will do whatever it takes to make the date.
Accurate times
Do you have accurate operation times for mfg items and lead times for purchased parts? If not, are you willing to spend time to update them?
APS will push plans forward using mfg times and lead times. If users can identify the critical materials and operations and have accurate times for these, they will find APS results reasonable. In complex manufacturing or assembly environments, balancing/synchronizing material and capacity is more important, and APS can help if a user has accurate data.
Note: in such situations a user does NOT need accurate data on all operations and materials–they only need it for the critical materials and the bottleneck resources.
If a user does not have accurate time information for the critical resources and materials and does not want to do what is required to update those times, then that user is a good candidate for MRP or APSI. In these situations, the user is comfortable with MRP or APSI backwards planning without constraint and working with a rough idea of how much expediting is needed for a given item.
Motivation
Are you actively looking for a solution to improve your planning or are you satisfied with MRP?
APS approaches planning different from MRP. Here are some of the key differences:
Constraints pushing out plans
Using projected late instead of past due to flag problems
Consolidation
Load (APS provides)
BOM data needed (can run MRP on lead times, good routing times not required), good lead times defined
New parameters
Moving from MRP to APS or APSI requires a significant change. It requires commitment and energy to revise appropriate business processes, obtain accurate date for critical resources and materials, and train the users. Many APS and APSI users have realized significant benefits in reduced lead times, reduced inventory, and increased on-time deliveries. However, if a user is simply trying to move from SL6 to SL7 to take advantage of the Microsoft platform or is happy with the results of MRP, then they are not a candidate for APS or APSI.
Secondary factors
There are a few other factors that differ between MRP and APS. Consider these when making a decision.
Load views
APS and APSI will show you capacity. MRP will not. If you want a view of the load, even if you want an MRP-like plan, and are not using scheduler, then you’ll want to use APS or APSI.
What-if analysis
Only APS and APSI provide what-if analysis with the Analyzer.
Consolidation
Will the difference in consolidation hurt your process? Can you set consolidation times to be equal at all levels of a BOM or use order mins and multiples to manage inventory?
Decision Table
The 3 key questions you need to answer:
Question
APS
APSI
MRP
Do you want constraints to push out plans or do you want a fixed target?
Push
Push or Fixed
Fixed
Do you have accurate operation times for mfg items and lead times for purchased parts? If not, are you willing to spend time to update them?
Yes
Yes
or No
No
Are you actively looking for a solution to improve your planning or are you satisfied with MRP?
Looking
Looking
Satisfied
Notice that in many instances a user can run APSI like MRP, yet take advantage of some of the tools in APS. To do this you need to make some specific settings.
How to set up APSI to run like MRP
If you want the load data, Analyzer what-if capability, and order visibility provided by APSI, but want it to run like MRP, you’ll need to set a few fields. The table below describes what you should do.
To…
Do this…
Turn off constraints so they don’t push out plans
Make all resources and resource groups infinite. This will turn off capacity constraint.
Give all resources a 24×7 shift. This will turn off the on-shift constraint. You can also use the MRP Item checkbox to turn off on-shift constraint for specific items.
Set Fixed Time to today – the longest lead time. This parameter can be set via the Analyzer. This will turn off the today and material availability constraints.
If you want to turn off material availability constraints for specific items, use these fields on the Items form:
Infinite checkbox (for purchased items)
Accept Requirements checkbox (no PLN generated)
Pass Requirements checkbox (no PLN generated for components)
Expedited Lead Times (set to 1 day, this will generate PLNs and allow you to see total days needed to expedite)
Set up consolidation to behave more like MRP
Make sure that higher levels in the BOM have a consolidation period equal to or less than the consolidation period of items in lower levels.
Or you can use order minimums and multiples to manage inventory instead of consolidation.
Use target dates instead of projected dates
Select the Preserve Pre-released Production Dates and deselect the Use Scheduled Times in Planning checkboxes. This will tell APS to use the end dates, not projected dates, as dates jobs will finish.
Set up safety stock exceptions for purchased items to behave like MRP
Select the Purchase Supply Switching and Generate Purchase Order Exceptions checkboxes.
Set up safety stock exceptions for manufactured items to behave like MRP
Apply the support solution for planning safety stock if your order minimums are larger than your safety stock level.
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