Brian,
We use the out of the box Vantage forecast very successfully for see
work center loads and material requirements out in the future. We've
developed certain BAQ searches, some integrated dashboards (with time
phase) and a few other tools to distinguish between 'real' demand and
forecast demand. These tools allow us to avoid firming any of these
suggested forecast jobs as well as how to see through purchase
suggestions when necessary. We do a dump and load weekly as we don't
allow the forecast to be consumed (this would be a mess).
Were quite happy with the vision it gives us. Of course this may not
work for everyone's business model but it has been a boon for ours.
Rob Bucek
Manufacturing Engineer
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 3111
FAX: (715)284-4084
<http://www.dsmfg.com/>
(Click the logo to view our site) <http://www.dsmfg.com/>
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 8:24 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Materials Required Report
We're wrestling with a somewhat related problem.
Because we have long lead-time and expensive components and a desire to
manage cash and risk, entering forecasts into Vantage isn't
straightforward. If we were to just enter the 'general forecast' it
would be difficult to distinguish between actual consumed demand and
forecast demand, and our corner office folks don't like that kind of
exposure given the softness in the marketplace right now.
Vantage doesn't give you a 'what if' kind of forecasting capability so
you can see what the potential financial impact of a given forecast
would represent. I think the 'off the shelf' solution is to buy and
implement SmartForecasting, which I'm guessing is Epicor's answer to the
question 'so you want more sophisticated forecasting capability'. That's
not unreasonable - you can't be all things to all people, and for many
businesses the standard forecasting module is good enough.
Right now we're doing things in a big spreadsheet, which is turning into
a time-suck.
One proposed solution is to create a copy of Vantage which is refreshed
from the live DB nightly, and use that as a playground where forecasts
can be uploaded and MRP run against the copy, and the resulting
purchasing actions can be compared against the live system to understand
the impact. That's actually non-trivial from an IT perspective to do it
properly, and it will require me to figure out stuff with SQL Server
Integration Services to automate stuff I currently do by hand when I
make a copy of Vantage, as well as setup OpenEdge plumbing for a new
database slot, etc.
I'm wondering if folks have other solutions to this problem.
-bws
--
Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix
bspolarich@...
<mailto:bspolarich%40advancedphotonix.com> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotonix.com
-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of schmangy20000
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 8:51 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Materials Required Report
Our sales people are looking for a "what if" material requirements
report and I'm wondering if someone in the group has already designed
one.
They want to be able to enter a quantity of a manufactured part and find
all the missing purchased components in the final assembly and
subassemblies.
Basically, it's an indented BOM with qty-per-parent, current demand,
on-hand qty and on-order qty columns.
------------------------------------
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder
and Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/>
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/linksYahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
We use the out of the box Vantage forecast very successfully for see
work center loads and material requirements out in the future. We've
developed certain BAQ searches, some integrated dashboards (with time
phase) and a few other tools to distinguish between 'real' demand and
forecast demand. These tools allow us to avoid firming any of these
suggested forecast jobs as well as how to see through purchase
suggestions when necessary. We do a dump and load weekly as we don't
allow the forecast to be consumed (this would be a mess).
Were quite happy with the vision it gives us. Of course this may not
work for everyone's business model but it has been a boon for ours.
Rob Bucek
Manufacturing Engineer
PH: (715) 284-5376 ext 3111
FAX: (715)284-4084
<http://www.dsmfg.com/>
(Click the logo to view our site) <http://www.dsmfg.com/>
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Brian W. Spolarich
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 8:24 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Materials Required Report
We're wrestling with a somewhat related problem.
Because we have long lead-time and expensive components and a desire to
manage cash and risk, entering forecasts into Vantage isn't
straightforward. If we were to just enter the 'general forecast' it
would be difficult to distinguish between actual consumed demand and
forecast demand, and our corner office folks don't like that kind of
exposure given the softness in the marketplace right now.
Vantage doesn't give you a 'what if' kind of forecasting capability so
you can see what the potential financial impact of a given forecast
would represent. I think the 'off the shelf' solution is to buy and
implement SmartForecasting, which I'm guessing is Epicor's answer to the
question 'so you want more sophisticated forecasting capability'. That's
not unreasonable - you can't be all things to all people, and for many
businesses the standard forecasting module is good enough.
Right now we're doing things in a big spreadsheet, which is turning into
a time-suck.
One proposed solution is to create a copy of Vantage which is refreshed
from the live DB nightly, and use that as a playground where forecasts
can be uploaded and MRP run against the copy, and the resulting
purchasing actions can be compared against the live system to understand
the impact. That's actually non-trivial from an IT perspective to do it
properly, and it will require me to figure out stuff with SQL Server
Integration Services to automate stuff I currently do by hand when I
make a copy of Vantage, as well as setup OpenEdge plumbing for a new
database slot, etc.
I'm wondering if folks have other solutions to this problem.
-bws
--
Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix /
Picometrix
bspolarich@...
<mailto:bspolarich%40advancedphotonix.com> ~ 734-864-5618 ~
www.advancedphotonix.com
-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of schmangy20000
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 8:51 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Materials Required Report
Our sales people are looking for a "what if" material requirements
report and I'm wondering if someone in the group has already designed
one.
They want to be able to enter a quantity of a manufactured part and find
all the missing purchased components in the final assembly and
subassemblies.
Basically, it's an indented BOM with qty-per-parent, current demand,
on-hand qty and on-order qty columns.
------------------------------------
Useful links for the Yahoo!Groups Vantage Board are: ( Note: You must
have already linked your email address to a yahoo id to enable access. )
(1) To access the Files Section of our Yahoo!Group for Report Builder
and Crystal Reports and other 'goodies', please goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/files/>
(2) To search through old msg's goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/messages
(3) To view links to Vendors that provide Vantage services goto:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vantage/linksYahoo! Groups Links
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]