All functionality discussed below is available both in Sage 200 and in the Sage 50 ‘Manufacturing Controller’, ‘Job Controller’ and ‘Batch Controller’ variants

The planning module comprises two main elements – Master Production Schedule (MPS) and Material Requirements Planning (MRP). When MPS is run, it gathers information from the four ‘demand’ modules – Sales Orders (from SOP), Estimates, Make to Stock and Sales Forecasts*.

(* Make to Stock is a facility within Planning enabling the user to enter ad-hoc items for production for which there is no other demand. Sales Forecasts similarly enables a user to enter future production requirements based on a sales forecast. Note that this facility does not actually create the forecast, it must be entered manually or imported.)

It is possible to view the resulting screen in a normal ‘list’ view or ‘time-phased’ where the demand can be seen in daily, weekly, four-weekly or monthly periods. The user can then ‘drill down’ on any period total for a particular product to see the individual demands making up that total.

MPS may be run at any time and with whatever frequency suits the needs of the business. It is simply a snapshot of demand to which the business needs to respond, so if demand changes rapidly then MPS should be run more frequently.

MRP processes the data gathered by MPS. It breaks all demand down into its constituent parts, through all levels of sub-assembly to component level. It operates according to numerous parameters set up by the user, which include taking into account minimum and maximum stock levels, supplier lead times for each raw material, re-order quantities and minimum quantities to name but a few. Having calculated the consequent material requirements, MRP then checks existing stocks, looks at outstanding Purchase Orders (subject to settings) and makes recommendations as to what products need to be made and what materials need to be bought – ‘make’ and ‘buy’ recommendations respectively. The program will also recommend cancellation of any orders it has calculated as being no longer necessary.

By reference to the Bill of Materials Operations, the program also calculates the production time for each of its ‘make’ recommendations. There is no attempt at this stage to measure the ability of the business to meet those production times (i.e. capacity), but latest start and end dates are displayed and optionally may be further processed by the Graphical Planner. If a calculated end date is after the due delivery date or required by date, the item is displayed in red.

The system provides a high degree of clarity and visibility on the results it has calculated. The user has control over the recommendation details and may change quantities, prices, suppliers, dates and priorities. In addition, the ‘tags’ display shows the relationship between any Recommendation and ultimately the top level demand which has caused it to be made. The MRP Output log, which at first looks rather daunting, provides complete detail of all calculations and is a highly useful tool in investigating why a particular recommendation has been made.

The user is also able to ‘split’ and ‘combine’ recommendations. A recommendation to make a batch of say 10,000 items may be ‘split’ into 2 batches of 5000 each. Conversely, 2 recommendations for the same product of a batch of 3000 and a batch of 5000 may be ‘combined’ into 1 batch of 8000. This ability to split and combine overrides any rules that may be in place for minimum and maximum batch quantities and therefore provides a greater degree of flexibility when required.

A particularly powerful feature is the ability to calculate a stock projection on a daily basis for any item within MRP. Any potential problems such as slipping below a minimum level, going negative or rising above a maximum level, are easily highlighted so any necessary action may be taken.

It is at this point that those making use of the Graphical Planner will ‘send’ the necessary data across for processing within that module. The Planner is dealt with separately – for details please click here. Those who are not using the Planner are now ready to 'action’ the recommendations, which automatically creates Purchase Orders in Purchase Order Processing for the ‘buy’ recommendations and Works Orders in Works Order Processing for the ‘make’ recommendations.

Next: Differences between Sage 200 and Sage 50 Planning