We are starting to use Epicor scheduling capabilities. We are on 9.05.701 and have advanced planning and scheduling. Jobs are scheduling in the past and they shouldn’t. We have unchecked “Allow Scheduling Before Today” in the company table (“Global Reschedule Started Operations” is checked). All resource groups have been set to finite. Production calendars are set up with correct working hours. Process MRP (regen, finite scheduling and use production prep buffer are only options checked, allow historical dates is NOT checked), Calculate Global Scheduling Order, and Global Scheduling (finite load checked) processes are set to run at noon (start date today, start time 12:00pm) and at 11:00pm (start date tomorrow, start time 12:00 AM). All jobs have been unlocked to make sure they don’t interfere with calculations. Conversion programs 5080, 8480, and 8740 have been run. Jobs are being scheduled as far back as 06/06. Adding and backward scheduling a brand new job also results in a start date in the past. Why are we getting start dates in the past? I have placed a call with Epicor support, but thought I’d ask the group while I waited for suggestions. Crossing my fingers it’s not broken without a fix or workaround in 9.05.701.
Sue you say you have resources checked as finite but do you have an actual
number of days for finite set in your finite capacity field? You should
have setup as a default on your plant setup in E9 a default Finite Horizon
and then for each resource you can tailor as appropriate but you will need
some value in there as well, set in days, so for example 30 days, 60 days,
etc
Also just curious why you would backward schedule a finite schedule? The
logic is set to look forward in contiguous scheduling blocks until it finds
available time for the resource in the future, which is the whole point of
finite scheduling
Try setting a finite number of days in your plant setup and then on at
least some of your resources and let me know if anything changes,
Mark Wagner
Sr. Partner
Capstone Alliance Partners 888.597.2227 Ext. 71
<888.597.2227%20Ext.%20714>2 | 904.412.6847 mwagner@capstoneap.com (cell)
| www.capstoneap.com
We don’t have anything set in the finite capacity fields. I’m setting up some tests and will let you know. As to why we’re backwards scheduling, I guess it’s because that’s what we’ve done in the past (sorry…I hate that excuse!). Our original setup was in Vantage 8.03.400. We set it up the way our Epicor consultants recommended and haven’t used scheduling until recently. Our original set up was infinite. We’ve changed scheduling to finite. Apparently, we also need to change our mindset to forward rather than backward scheduling?
I’ve been looking at the data in Adjust Global Scheduling Order. I’ve found Calculate Global Scheduling Order checks Backwards check box for all jobs. Just before lunch I unchecked all the backwards check boxes and ran the Global Scheduling process. That stopped jobs from scheduling in the past. The results of that test confirm what you said about using forward rather than backward scheduling. That’s an easy change to do when moving a job in the scheduling boards or when scheduling a job from job entry. However, whenever I run the Calculate Global Scheduling Order, the backwards check boxes are checked again. Why would that happen and how do I change that behavior?
I’ll do some testing with the finite horizon and get back to you soon.
Thank you Mark for your help!
Sue
Mark,
I added a finite horizon in our smaller plant and also in its resources. I ran MRP and the scheduling processes and got the same results. I see where using the finite horizon will be useful and will store it away for future reference, but it didn’t seem to stop jobs from scheduling in the past.
On the plus side, I think I found where the checked backward check box comes from in the Calculate Global Scheduling Order process. It’s comes from the Scheduling Priority Code. I plan on unchecking it and see what the job start dates look like in the morning after overnight processes have run.
I think backward scheduling was recommended, even in finite scheduling, for JIT purposes. I could be mistaken, I’m still learning. I understood backward scheduling scheduled backwards until it hit a start date before today at which point it forward scheduled (making the job late). Of course, that’s as long as “Allow Scheduling Before Today” and “Allow Historical Dates” are unchecked in Company and MRP Processing.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Sue
This issue was resolved when a one-off patch (for version 9.05.701) for SCR 104986 was received and installed. The scheduling processes no longer result in jobs scheduled to start in the past. Woot Woot! Thank you Epicor support!!!