How to: Master Production Scheduling (how it all works)

1. Initialization

• Before you Initialize a Schedule, you have to define parameters for the Schedule to use on the Setup Tab. Settings such as the Date range, Shortage Basis and Initialization Mode are used to drive the planning results. Be sure to hit F1 from this form for detailed descriptions of the Schedule Setup selections.

• Once the Setup tab has been defined, click Initialize. The initialization process creates a unique set of data (specific to each Schedule ID) based on the criteria you define on the Setup Tab. This process will include things like quantities of your Items, at your various Locations, as well as Open Purchase Orders, Released Work Orders, and Released Manufacturing Orders, based on selections you made for the Schedule Setup.

• This process calculates the ins and outs of your various Item Quantities based on Due Dates of your Open Purchase Order Details and the Start/Completion Dates for your Released Work and Manufacturing Orders. The Schedule uses this data to determine shortages/demand of your Items (and on which dates) based on the Shortage Basis of this particular Schedule.

2. Immediately after initialization you can go to the Detail and Audit tabs, and/or print any of the Planning Reports, to see what Items are short based on existing quantities (all Location specific) and usage from Current Activity (based on Work Orders and Manufacturing Orders).

3. You have the ability to use the tabs in the Schedule to view Summary, Detail and Audit level descriptions of events that will occur based on existing data that was considered when you Initialized. Items that will be short at some point in the Schedule will show up in Red.

From this point, there are a couple different things you can do to satisfy potential shortages that are being reported.

• Use our Production and Purchasing Advice reports. These can be found in Reports | Planning and are Schedule ID specific. They will return any Items and quantities you will need to buy or build (depending on the report) in order to satisfy any shortages in the Schedule. These reports can be used to assist you in manually creating Purchase Orders, Work Orders, or Manufacturing Orders to buy/build whatever you need in time to satisfy those shortages at the correct Location. 

• Alternatively (or in addition to those reports) you have the ability to create the MRP from the Schedule (in the top Title bar of the Schedule form). This will create a requirements database from which you will be able to create real Purchase Orders, Work Orders, and Manufacturing Orders needed to resolve the resulting inventory shortages.This can be done by following the prompts you'll get (after creating MRP) or by clicking on Process MRP from inside the Purchasing or Production sections in MISys.