MRP Configuration: General Information

Acumatica ERP Manufacturing Edition provides you with the ability to use material requirements planning (MRP) to satisfy customer requirements while maintaining optimal inventory levels in a warehouse. This functionality is available only when the Material Requirements Planning feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.

In this topic, you will find information about configuring MRP in the system based on your business needs.

Learning Objectives

In this chapter, you will learn how to do the following:

  • Create a master production schedule (MPS) type
  • Specify system settings for the material requirements planning functionality
  • Create MRP buckets
  • Set up the stock items that are involved in MRP
  • Set up the warehouses that are involved in MRP
  • Configure the system to include transfers in MRP

Applicable Scenarios

You implement the material requirements planning functionality in the following cases:

  • When you are initially implementing MYOB Advanced and the Material Requirements Planning feature is included in your license
  • When you have purchased a license that includes the Material Requirements Planning feature, and you need to configure manufacturing in the existing MYOB Advanced system

Implementation of Material Requirements Planning

When you initially implement material requirements planning, you do the following:

MPS Types

You use the MPS Type (AM203000) form to create and manage MPS types. An MPS type provides default settings for master production schedule orders, such as the numbering sequence the system should use for the reference numbers of the orders and the setting that indicates whether MPS orders depend on the production orders. If you would like the item quantities in MPS orders to be reduced by the actual production orders that are scheduled to be completed prior to the MPS planning date, you select the Dependent check box.

MRP Buckets

Data used in MRP—that is, supply and demand entities—is aggregated for particular periods or buckets, which can be days, weeks, months, or years. You can define periods consisting of one interval or multiple intervals. The start date of a bucket is the ending date of the previous period. You use the MRP Buckets (AM201200) form to create and manage buckets. In the Bucket column, you define the bucket as follows:

  • For a future period, you specify a positive integer value.
  • For a present period that starts today, you specify 0.
  • For a past due period, you specify a negative integer value.
Tip: In addition to buckets for present and future periods, we recommend that you add at least one bucket for a past due period (that is, a bucket with the minus sign).

You then use the created buckets on the MRP Requirements by Item (AM401200) form to view the planning results.

Warehouse and Warehouse Locations in MRP

For each warehouse involved in manufacturing, on the Warehouses (IN204000) form, you need to select the entities that the system will consider during planning and the warehouse locations that store the items to be included in planning.

You manage the set of entities, transactions, and documents included in planning by selecting or clearing the corresponding check boxes in the MRP Settings section of the Manufacturing tab on the Warehouses form. If all the check boxes are cleared, the warehouse is excluded completely from MRP.

Tip: If any of the following documents should be included in planning, you select the corresponding check boxes in the General section on the MRP Preferences (AM100000) form: sales orders on hold, purchase orders on hold, and production orders on hold.

For warehouse locations that should be included in planning, you select the check box in the MRP column of the table on the Locations tab of the Warehouses form.

Attention: If the MRP check box is cleared for a warehouse location, then any production orders with this location as the planned receipt location are excluded from MRP.

Stock Items in MRP

For each stock item you want to include in material requirements planning, the MRP Item check box should be selected on the Manufacturing tab of the Stock Items (IN202500) form. In the MRP process, the system uses supply and demand data for the combination of the stock item and warehouse. However, if there is a demand for an item and warehouse and there is supply in another warehouse, an MRP exception of the Transfer Available type is generated on the MRP Exceptions (AM403000) form. For details on including transfer orders in MRP, see the Transfer Orders in MRP section in this topic.

Attention: Stock items with a status of Inactive or Marked for Deletion are excluded from planning. Items with any of the following statuses are included in planning: Active, No Sales, No Purchases, and No Request.

For items involved in MRP, we recommend that you specify replenishment settings on the Manufacturing tab of the Stock Items (IN202500) form if the item is stored in one warehouse or the Item Warehouse Details (IN204500) form if the item is stored in multiple warehouses. In the Planning Settings section, you should specify a value in the Safety Stock or Reorder Point box, depending on the value of the Stocking Method box on the MRP Preferences (AM100000) form.

The system also uses the following values specified for the default vendor from the Vendor Details tab on the Stock Items or Item Warehouse Details form:

  • Add Lead Time (Days): The number of days added to the default vendor lead time.
  • Min. Order Qty.: The minimum order quantity for the planned orders.
  • Lot Size: The item quantity of the lot; the system rounds up the quantity of the item in planned orders to the nearest multiple of the lot size. For example, suppose that the demand is 37, the minimum order quantity is 20, and the lot size is 5; then the planned order quantity is 40.
  • Max. Order Qty.: The maximum order quantity for planned orders. Multiple planned orders can be created to cover the demand.
Attention: If an item does not have a default vendor, then the system uses the settings specified on the Manufacturing tab of the Stock Items or Item Warehouse Details form during planning.

Transfer Orders in MRP

The system can be configured to create a planned order of the Planned Transfer Demand type if it finds information about available item transfers during planning. A planning engineer can then convert the planned order to a transfer order.

To configure the system to do this, for each item that can be transferred from another warehouse, you do the following on the Item Warehouse Details (IN204500) form:

  1. Open or create a record for a combination of the item and the source warehouse.
  2. On the Replenishment tab, specify the following:
    • Replenishment Source: Transfer
    • Replenishment Warehouse: The transfer warehouse

If item transfer between the warehouses usually takes more than one day, you can specify the transfer lead time that the system will use in MRP as follows:

  1. Open the Manufacturing tab of the Warehouses (IN204000) form for the warehouse to which items can be transferred. In the Transfer Lead Time table, add each warehouse from which items can be transferred in the Replenishment Warehouse column, and specify the default transfer lead times between the warehouses in the Transfer Lead Time column.
  2. If transfer lead time is item-specific, on the Item Warehouse Details (IN204500) form, do the following:
    1. Select the needed combination of an item and source warehouse.
    2. In the Planning Settings section of the Manufacturing tab, select the Override check box to the right of the Transfer Lead Time box, and specify the transfer lead time in the box.

The reference numbers of planned transfer orders are generated automatically and have the PLTR prefix.

Automation Schedule for MRP Regeneration

We strongly recommend that you set up an automation schedule to run MRP regeneration daily during the night or early morning so that the results are available for the planners and buyers at the start of their work day. You should set it to run after all other scheduled processes that impact supply and demand are run to ensure that the MRP process has the most up-to-date data. The following automated processes affect MRP:

  • Any process that changes the on-hand quantity of inventory items, such as physical counts, adjustments, purchase receipts, shipments, and production reporting
  • Any process that creates demand or supply orders or updates these orders to change quantities or dates, such as importing sales orders
  • Inventory replenishment processes that calculate safety stock and reorder points
  • Release of transactions or documents that were held during the day, such as invoices

You can create an automation schedule either on the Regenerate MRP (AM505000) form or on the Automation Schedules (SM205020) form.