Going from infinite backward to finite forward scheduling

Epicor ERP 10
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We are looking at moving from infinite backward to finite forward scheduling. If you’ve gone through this can you provide me with suggestions?

  • foundational steps or steps to execute
  • pitfalls to avoid
  • lessons learned
  • anything else?
  • Resources?

Thanks!

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The trouble with forward scheduling is it will schedule forwards, which is great untill it isnt. if the jobs are loaded early.
Backwards is better as it will schedule backwards until it hits today and then stop and schedule forward.
do you do a global reschedule every night, before MRP?

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Andy. Thanks for the question. We actually only run global reschedule once a week on Friday Night. Honestly that is a first for me, I’ve only ever heard of nightly reschedules. What do you mean “if the jobs are loaded early”?

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Welcome @nmulkey !!

I believe he means if you enter an order today that is not due until 20206 or 2027. It will forward schedule and may place it on the schedule to get made way before it is actually needed. What is your average manufacturing time and how many late orders do you receive?

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Do you Allow Historical Dates?

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Right now we do (we are currently set as backwards/infinite). IF we go ahead with forward/finite, we made note that we would NOT allow historical dates. Thoughts??

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Our average mfg lead time is about 3-4 months for our commercial work, and 7-9 months for our military line. The majority of our orders are taken at lead time, but about 10-15% would be considered a lead time violated order.

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Then I think that Forward Scheduling would work for your company.

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If you all of a sudden set EVERYTHING to Finite, you’ll most likely discover that you won’t be completing any jobs until 2028 or so, and have no clue where to look for the inevitable issues.

START SLOWLY. Start with one Resource Group (perhaps one that is your WORST bottleneck), making all the Resources in JUST THAT GROUP as Finite. See what happens. Make notes. Talk to the Production folks and the Engineering folks and the Planning and Scheduling folks. Find out how accurate your production standards and calendar and data collection really are! When you’re happy with what you’ve discovered and begin to understand the ramifications of this, set another Resource Group to Finite. See how that affects the system.

This is a chasm that really requires several small jumps to cross.

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