I am trying to understand why we get PO change suggestions, but apparently not for all parts. We do have a number of Expedite/Postpone suggestions after the latest MRP run. But this example part has no demand in time phase:
Hello John, thank you for the swift reply! You are exactly right, LockQty is 1. So this setting will not just prevent MRP from suggesting to reduce qty but also prevent it from suggestion a cancelation?
No, I was just addressing the lack of cancel suggestions.
For the postpone suggestions, if they are also locked, MRP won’t look at them. If they are not locked, we would have to look at the settings for what MRP is run for and other planning fields.
For the example I gave above (no demand), the setting is LockQty=1, LockDate=0. Does that explain the lack of cancel suggestions? EDIT: Thank you, Chad, this is answered now.
I also have a different example part, where we have some TimePhase demand but much less than the PO quantity placed. The PORel here also has LockQty=1 and LockDate=0. So I would expect a postpone suggestion here. These POs are overdue, though. Maybe that has an effect as well?
You may have no demand NOW, but I would wager you did at one point. Locking Date and/or Qty can be quite useful, but it can also be self defeating.
I would suggest looking into why they are locking the PO’s. One of the most common reasons is because you don’t have a stocking level set and Epicor tells you to cancel the PO because you don’t need it.
In that scenario, sure setting the Lock Qty reduces your noise on PO suggestions, but so does filling in a stocking level. If they come back and say that they don’t want a stocking level, then maybe it should be Nonstock.
Using the Lock Qty/Lock Date is essentially telling the planning engine “Shut up, I know what I’m doing” and therefore you no longer get suggestions.
You will not get a cancel suggestion for a PO line/release with a locked quantity. If the quantity is “locked”, you can’t change it (to zero, in this example).
