Hey everyone,
We currently use Epicor 10 and last summer integrated with Smart SDP (forecasting) and SIO (statistical stocking policy/inventory optimization). I set up a process where we refresh our stocking policies the first of each month in Smart SIO which pushes to Epicor Part maintenance, then MRP reruns overnight. The ultimate goal was to setup reorder to max so I could pull PO suggestions, push to a PO and have everything driven by the system. Our monthly POs can be 100+ lines, hence the push for this automation! Last summer I cut some corners based on my limited understanding of MRP configuration and the knobs I could turn, and now is the time to set this up correctly!
Below is the behavior I am trying to create starting with the stocking policies in Smart SIO:
This is a messy example (because I have two open POs in the beginning), but when my on hand + in transit hits the reorder (shown with yellow line), a new PO suggestion is created with quantity = max - (reorder + in transit). The key here though is MRP has to consider what POs are open within lead time. From other help on this forum, I changed “Allow consumption of minimum quantity” which I thought would solve this but is not having the desired result. The image above I created as an ‘ideal’ state with in excel with daily demand, etc., to illustrate. The system in its current state works when I do not have much within lead time PO noise, so this example I happen to have two smaller POs that is throwing off this signal.
Shown another way thats kind of ugly, but shows OH+In Transit not triggering the new suggestion per “allow consumption of minimum qty”.
---- image shown in next post ----
I have all the POs locked for qty and date to remove that noise. I should mention, how i got this to work last year was to have a lead time of 0 days and i previously did not have “allow consumption of minimum qty” checked, which tricked the system into thinking the inventory when ordered today would show up, and it worked great. The limitation is when you have multiple open POs in and out of lead time, it can drive extremely unpredictable behavior.
Do I have a theoretical/philosophical misunderstanding of these specific settings or am I missing a configuration somewhere to get the behavior I’m seeking?
Anyways, if anyone has any tips or solutions, I would greatly appreciate your help and thanks in advance!
You can see the OH inventory is getting below reorder and then reorder me to above max (i think going above max is an artifact of adding the next months forecast as consumption…). The behavior is very close, but its clearly using OH inventory ONLY for the reorder trigger and not OH inv + in transit which I do not feel is correct.
Have you experimented with Days of Supply? I suspect that the system will try to keep SS on hand but allow MOH usage if you have days of supply pushed out. Perhaps toss a year in there since you have forecast going out almost that far.
Nancy
Hey Nancy,
I saw a few posts of yours that i tried to mimic using 365 days of supply, the main difference was you did not have reorder to max checked in either of those posts. From the technical guide, i understand days of supply to sort of accomplish the same thing as reorder to max, its pooling the demand to tag along to your PO suggestion for that quantity of days beyond the PO, if i understand correctly!
Below is my existing configuration with reorder to max still checked comparing 0 and 365 days of supply:
Its not behaving like I expected and as I mentioned before, compared to your previous post, you did not have reorder to max checked so i gave this a try… next post…
I started with no reorder to max with 0 and 45 days days of supply (45 because that is the lead time demand) to compare…
0 days of supply and no reorder to max has you order every month because the demand pulls you below ROP, with no max! Makes sense…
45 days of supply and no reorder to max. This actually looks pretty good but one limitation i see is that my forecast is monthly so 45 days (business days… so 9 weeks) could include or not include a months demand if it falls on the day before or after the forecast, so i could see some clipping.
My conclusion from this work so far (correct me if I’m wrong!):
re-order to max and days of supply are both directly setting the order qty. Reorder to max is using the max where days of supply is using a demand window beyond the order delivery. I do not believe reorder to max and days of supply should be used together, at least for what I’m trying to achieve, because they become additive as shown in the example above with order of 665.
What I am trying to achieve is when OH inv + on order < reorder point (min +SS), then give a new PO suggestion today for the lead time of 45 days at the delivery. I would have thought that reorder to max + locking qty/date + allow consumption of min qty checked + 45 day lead time would have created this. I’m left scratching my head!
