I get that I have POs to cover the demand and I locked the PO. So I don’t expect a change suggestion, but I thought I’d get a new PO suggestion for 5 (min lot size), due around 1/29/20–which I did before I had a PO.
But maybe it’s not quite true. This section of the tech ref (below) seems to imply that MRP calculates supply quantity and THEN schedules it. If so, it would see no supply quantity need and no way to reschedule the existing PO… [edit: “supply” was “demand”]
Two things jump out at me as possible reasons why you might not be seeing a new suggestion (I agree that it seems like you should be getting one too, if your PO is locked per your note).
the Days of Supply is short. 35 days does not go out as far as when you are going below zero. Temporarily make it 180 or 365 and see what happens? Of course you might wanna ratchet back down on this so you don’t hold excess inventory, after testing. You only have 5 day LT on this part… honestly you can just about get it when you need it for a job.
Your old dates on jobs aren’t so good. The system is going to act poorly when you don’t keep demand dates reasonable. Why not reschedule these jobs since the demand certainly can’t be in July and August
It’s all just a test scenario to see if locking all new POs is a good idea. And the jobs are old because I have not refreshed the test DB in two or three months.
As to days of supply, I don’t think that matters - it’s a lot size. It’s just how big the PO will be for, not when to schedule it.
I decided to try again with logging. It’s not very informative. I just see that one time it doesn’t do anything.
We have had this problem when locking POs. If the promise date on the PO is more than 4 or 5 days after the due date, the system will create a New PO Suggestion.
It will not tell the buyers to expedite. We found this to be problematic, especially after realizing we had created duplicate orders!
Jason,
Have you tried just locking the quantity? You should see expedites then, if that’s what you are trying to achieve. I’m not sure what you are trying to gain with the date lock.
It’s also helpful to know what version of Epicor you have when running into MRP issues. We’ve run into some crazy things with MRP - although we have crazy things with our setup that probably drive most of that (configured, max lot size, schedule in the past – please, no responses to allowing scheduling in the past - wasn’t my call to make )
I’m not looking for expedite or postpone suggestions. Honestly, I think the buyers just hate going to two screens (new suggestions and change suggestions) and would rather it be on one.
It’s also maddening to look at time phase with change suggestions. I understand it, but a lot of employees, especially new ones, get very confused. A simple set of, “you should buy some of these” requests is more straightforward.
10.2.300.15. I kind of wish that would pop up when you hover over someone’s name. But I guess I should get in the habit of putting that in new posts. I don’t think there’s a signature option here…
Just an observation, I know you said ignore the other 2 sites, Would MRP be looking at those sites as a Supply ? Is there a Transfer Order Suggestion ? We do not use multiple sites but do feel the pain of Buyers having to look at both New and Change suggestions.
Something we are planning on implementing is setting the Time in and Out delta’s to trim down on the change suggestions and force new Suggestions.
I didn’t see in the above posts whether you tried to make “allow historical dates” flag to be set at false. I’ve seen this cause a problem before. Also, not sure if this will cause a problem when you specifically select the part, but is the “generate po suggestions” selected on the Part / Sites tab?
I got these oddball failed to create suggestions in the past. We went to Full Regens every nite ( found that although regening 1 part is great, sometimes that wouldn’t work) and that seemed to clear it up. One more thing to try ? ? .
Process MRP Recalc Needed ? ? I have not used it but I remember that it is there.
I mention the “historical dates” as I’ve seen this cause a problem, where POs are not generated properly. It might be worth trying to run the process without that check box selected. Also, there may be an issue with the process in your current version. The locking functionality for qty is not always working right.
@DeanMiller I finally got around to doing the full regen. It didn’t fix anything, but it is rather interesting what happened. It confirms my suspicion.
First, doing the full regen created a TON of jobs demanding the part. Totally normal, just fair warning.
Second, the 365 days of supply (@Nancy_Hoyt ) didn’t fix anything either but at least made this experiment a lot easier to digest. I only have one PO suggestion instead of dozens.
Third, the results. I still go negative before my locked PO (due months after all demand ends), while the PO suggestion performs as expected.
Conclusion: MRP totals all demand, then totals all existing supply, and then makes suggestions for the balance. It does not factor in dates until it schedules the suggestions. So if, like me, you lock a late PO, you are hosed. (It’s only in test, though so don’t feel bad for me.)
Also, Support is batting 1.000 lately for me. Phil believed me on this one and submitted a request last night to fix it (PRB0216269). He wrote a 99-step (seriously) “Steps to duplicate” write-up. I only did a 7-slide PowerPoint file. Go Phil!
If I kick the PO out to December 2020, I get a suggestion for the full 425, because my PO is outside of the 365 days of supply range - starting from when I first go negative on July 25, 2019.
So Days of Supply was too large for this part, at least for all the testing I did.
)
Just got pwned by Support.
