Part of the MRP Fundamentals Series (for Infor VISUAL ERP). MRP basically looks at all your existing demand and supply for your fabricated and purchased parts – and will generate “planned” supply orders for those parts that are short. Simple enough.
Planned supply orders are based on several factors relating to the part, such as:
- Order Policy
- Lead Time
- Existing Inventory (On Hand and Supply Orders)
- Existing Demand
- Master Production Schedule
But before we can get into any of these – we need to start at the warehouse.
In Warehouse Maintenance, there are 2 ways you can set up a warehouse that will have an impact on MRP.
Universal Warehouse vs Independently Planned Warehouse
Universal Warehouses – MRP will treat all universal warehouses as a single unit where inventory is pooled and considered shared – meaning, MRP will net inventory across all universal warehouses based on planning parameters specified for UNIVERSAL (under PLANNING tab in Part Maintenance – we’ll get to that in another post)
Independently Planned Warehouses – This option allows you to separate inventory and plan by warehouse. You can view inventory along with universal warehouses or look at it separately. These warehouses have their own unique set of planning parameters for associated inventory.
Associating your Parts to Warehouses
You likely know this already – but I only bring this up as I wanted to bring your attention to the Warehouse and Location Status field for a part and what it means to MRP.
This field can be one of 3 values:
- Available: MRP will consider the qty in this location as available and nettable
- Unavailable: MRP will not include the qty in this location in its netting
- On Hold: MRP will consider the qty in this location as available and nettable.
(Why, you say? Well, On Hold items are typically those items going through QA as part of receiving inspection)
Next: The Planning Tab in Part Maintenance
