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Calculate Supply Plans

Overview

A Supply Plan is used to aggregate demand and supply by Item and Warehouse, together with planning parameters to calculate suggested supply orders such as Purchase Orders, Work Orders, or Transfer Orders. 

Preliminary Routines

  1. Import or manually enter Items with default planning parameters.   

  2. Create Stockkeeping Units and update planning parameters.

  3. Run the Item Calculate Low Level function to update the Lower Level Code of Items if any Formulas were changed since the last time this process was run.  When calculating the Supply Plan, GoldFinch will plan items from the top (lowest low-level code) to the bottom (highest low-level code).  

SKU Setup

When calculating supply plans, GoldFinch will read setups defined in the SKU card to ensure the most accurate calculations. 

Parameters

  1. Reorder Cycle Days - All demand and supply quantities with dates are bucketed into Recorder Cycle periods. 

  2. Reorder Policy - The default is set to Fixed Reorder Qty.  At this time, this is the only option available. 

  3. Replenishment System - Menu options include: Purchase Order, Work Order, and Transfer Order.  If the Replenishment System is set to Transfer Order then the Transfer-from Warehouse is required.

  4. Order Multiples - Enter the quantity based on the Purchase Unit of Measure to round up the supply order quantity. Entering 1 will avoid decimals caused by splitting the Purchase Unit of Measure.  For example, if you always want to purchase units of 24 cases, the Purchase Unit of Measure must be set to Case and 24 should be entered.

  5. Vendor - Enter the vendor to be used in creating purchase orders.

  6. Purchase Unit of Measure - This unit of measure is used to create purchase orders or work orders depending on the order type selected in the Replenishment System field setup.

    • If the item is a batch-manufactured item, then the default Batch Unit of Measure on the Item card is used to create the Work Order.

  7. Use Calculated Parameters - If checked, the calculated parameters are calculated by the End of Day Daily Routine based on the historical transactions.  If this field is unchecked, the manually entered Locked Parameters will be used.  To get started, the Use Calculated Parameters field should be unchecked.

  8. Safety Stock Days - Calculated Safety Stock = Calculated Daily Usage x Safety Stock Days

  9. Locked Lead Time Days 

    • Purchase Order - Expected Receipt Date = Plan Date, Order Date = Plan Date - Lead Time

    • Work Order - Ending Date = Plan Date, Starting Date = Plan Date - Lead Time

    • Transfer Order - Order Date = Plan Date - Lead Time, Shipment Date = Plan Date - Lead Time, Expected Receipt Date =Plan Date

  10. Locked Reorder Qty - The minimum order quantity for replenishment. 

  11. Locked Safety Stock - The minimum inventory on hand requirement.

Item Setup

The Supply Plan is calculated by the Base Unit of Measure only - not by each of the Units of Measures defined for an Item.  Because of this, there are some recommendations for the setup of the Base Unit of Measure for the items. 

  • Raw Material Items - Use the most commonly used stocking Unit of Measure as the Base Unit of Measure.  This may not be the smallest or largest Unit of Measure.  Additional Item Units of Measure should then be set up for purchasing and consumption purposes.

  • Finished Good Items - Use the most commonly used selling Unit of Measure as the Base Unit of Measure.

  • Batch Manufactured Items  -  Use the default Weight Unit of Measure (i.e. KG or LB) as the Base Unit of Measure.  Various Batch Units of Measure can be set up for different batch sizes.

When creating Supply Orders:

  • Batch Manufactured Items -  GoldFinch will use the Default Batch Unit of Measure defined on the Item to create Work Orders.

  • Non-Batch Manufactured Items - GoldFinch will use the Purchase Unit of Measure defined on the SKU to create Purchase Orders or Work Orders.

Running Calculate Low-Level Routine

If you make changes to the Item Formulas/BOM structure, you must run Item Calculate Low Level again.

Calculate Supply Plan

After you have set up your Demand Planning parameters, you can now calculate the Supply Plan. The Supply Plan Lines are the result of calculating the Supply Plan. 

Navigate to the GoldFinch Demand Planning app. Click the Supply Plan tab. Click the Calculate Supply Plan button.

Calculate Supply Plan checks the following conditions before it executes the calculations:

  • All SKUs must have Purchase Unit of Measure.

  • All Purchase Unit of Measures must have a conversion.

  • All Items must have Base UOM Record Id.

  • Use Calculated Parameters is not allowed to be checked, unless Allow to use Calculated Parameters is checked on the Demand Planning Setup.

Fill in Item Category only if you want to troubleshoot the Supply Planning for a category only. You must leave this field blank in order to calculate an accurate supply plan based on the total demand and supply quantities.

Plan End Date is default to today’s date plus Periods to Run Supply Plan defined on the Demand Planning Setup.

Quantity in Bins with (Bin Type = QC) will not be included as part of the On Hand Qty.

You will receive a success message listing the number of supply lines and calculation lines. 

If the Supply Plan keeps running without a Success message, it means it encountered an error. Navigate to Setup\Jobs\Apex Jobs to review the error.

Change the list view to view the Supply Plan in its entirety (All) or to view Supply Lines grouped by Purchase Order, Transfer Order, and Work Order.

The Supply and Demand quantities will be calculated using the following data:

Plan Duration

Plan Start Date:

  • If the Inventory Period Type on the Demand Planning Setup is By Month, the Plan Start Date is the first date of the current month

  • If the Inventory Period Type on the Demand Planning Setup is By Week, the Plan Start Date is the first date of the current week

Plan End Date = Plan Start Date + 6 months (6-month default or the time period you defined in the Demand Planning Setup)

Plan Execution

Running the planning will do the following:

  1. Retrieve the supply and demand from GoldFinch.

    1. Demand includes:

      1. All open Sales Orders and return Sales Orders that are set up to ship on or before the plan end date. (Closed Sales Orders are not included in the calculation). 

      2. Consumption Work Order Lines where the Document Status is not Finished and the Due Date of the line is on or before the Plan End Date.

      3. Active Forecasts with the Forecast Date ending on or before the Plan End Date. (Forecast consumption is not calculated. If you enter Sales Orders using future dates, and if these orders affect Sales Forecasts, you must adjust the Sales Forecasts manually)

      4. Transfer Orders where the Shipment Date is on or before the Plan End Date.

      5. Safety Stock

    2. Supply includes:

      1. All open Purchase Orders that are defined are to be received on or before the plan end date. (Closed Purchase Orders are not included in the calculation). 

      2. Output Work Orders where the Document Status is not Finished and the Ending Date of the order is on or before the Plan End Date.

      3. Transfer Orders where the Expected Receipt Date is on or before the Plan End Date

      4. Item Quantity on Hand

  2. Bucket the supply and demand by the SKU's Reorder Cycle.

  3. Calculate the difference between the SKU's supply and demand (Net Demand) requirements by each of the reorder cycles. 

  4. Create Transfer Order requirements based on Net Demand if it is negative.

  5. Create Work Order or Purchase Order requirements based on Net Demand if it is negative.

  6. Use the Reorder Qty. on the SKU card if the absolute value of Net Demand is less than the Reorder Qty. This means the supply plan is not calculating enough to reach the reorder quantity so the reorder quantity will be used to generate the order instead. The Total Net Demand is discussed additionally in the GF3010 Calculation Line Analysis Report topic below. 

  7. Round up the Reorder Qty. using Order Multiples input in the SKU card.

  8. Explode any Work Order items to create demand for components. This will ensure supply is ordered or transferred if needed to fulfill the Work Order.

    1. If Formula Version is used for an item, Supply Plan will look for a Formula Version with the following conditions:

      1. Certification Status = Certified

      2. Start Date <= Plan Date

      3. End Date >= Plan Date

  9. Summarize all supply orders by Reorder Cycle, Item, and Warehouse, and then create supply plan lines.

If a Work Order item has an outside service Work Center, the Supply Plan will suggest both Work Orders and its related Outside Service Purchase Orders.

Edit Supply Plan

Supply Plan Lines can be edited directly before the supply orders are created. Any changes that need to be made after the orders are created will need to be made on the order itself.  

  • You can place a check in the Check Reviewed field and can filter on this field later.

  • Change the Quantity, Order Date, or Due Date as needed before creating orders.

Review Calculation Lines

Calculation Line Tab

The Calculation Line tab provides details about the supply plan and each line is listed in consecutive order. There are additional details such as Action, Supply/Demand, if a Work Order has been exploded to create demand, etc. 

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GF3010 Calculation Line Analysis Report

The Calculation Line Analysis report will show the supply and demand calculated grouped by Item and Warehouse, and by Plan Date.  

If the Supply Plan works correctly, cumulative Qty. Base by Plan Date, Item, and Warehouse should be greater than or equal to 0. If it is greater than 0, it means you have ordered stock based on a recommended reorder quantity and order multiple and will have remaining stock on hand for the subsequent Plan Date.

Create Orders button

After all supply plan lines have been reviewed and any necessary edits have been completed, the orders can be generated directly from the Supply Plan. 

  1. Use different views to limit the records:

    1. Create Purchase Orders

    2. Create Work Orders

    3. Create Transfer Orders

    4. Reviewed

  2. Select the Lines to define what lines will be used to Create Orders.

  3. Click on Create Orders.

    1. When Purchase Orders are created, GoldFinch groups lines by Vendor, Warehouse, Order Date, and Due Date.

    2. When Work Orders are created, GoldFinch groups lines by Items.

    3. When Transfer Orders are created, GoldFinch groups lines by Warehouse, From Warehouse, Order Date, and Due Date

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