Gray Research - Software Research, MRP II software standards

Net change versus regeneration.
Bucketless (plan by date) versus bucketed planning logic.
A shop calendar that distinguishes work days from non-work days.
A planning horizon long enough for effective material, capacity, and financial planning.

Detailed checklist

Sales and Operations Planning

Summary

The ability to state future sales and operations plans by product family.
A sales and operations planning report for product families that shows the key planning information as well as comparisons of plans to actual activity.
A method to convert the sales and operations plans from the primary unit of measure to units of measure meaningful to finance, manufacturing, engineering, sales and marketing, etc.
A method to compare and evaluate the sales and operations plans against the business plan.
Rough cut capacity requirements planning.

Detailed checklist

Master Production Scheduling

Summary

A master production schedule order which is a statement of production and which can be used to state the master production schedule.
Specialized transactions and logic to reduce the time required to create and maintain the master production schedule. A rate based master schedule generator is helpful in a high volume, repetitive environment.
A master production schedule report that shows demands against the master schedule, the master production schedule itself, the projected available balance and the available to promise.
The means to total the master production schedule for comparison back to the sales and operations plan.
Exception messages to indicate to the master scheduler which master schedule items require attention.
The means to assist the master scheduler in master scheduling a product at two levels.
The tools to assist the master scheduler in managing changes to the master production schedule. These tools include:

Rough cut capacity planning.

A lead time picture.

Detailed checklist

Demand Management

Summary

A forecasting system that includes the following:
Several simple forecasting techniques and a method for evaluating them.

A way to take seasonal factors into account.

A way to break down and allocate forecasts of families of items by warehouse, configuration, package size, etc.

A way to review and approve (or override) the forecast before updating the system.
An order entry system that includes transactions to add, change, and delete customer orders and that supports order confirmation, picking, and shipping.
A method or methods for promising customer deliveries based on availability, not standard lead time policies.
A way to handle order entry for products made from options.
A method for comparing existing customer orders to the forecast for the purpose of identifying demands that may be abnormal.
A way to indicate demands that have been identified as abnormal.
Forecast consumption logic and a calculation of total demand that includes the following functions:

A method for handling customer orders that do not match the forecast week-by-week, but which may be a good approximation of the demand forecast over longer periods.

A method for handling past due forecasts and past due customer orders.

A method for handling abnormal demands, dependent demands, distribution requirements, and interplant orders.

A way to introduce spare parts demands into the Material Requirements Planning system.

Detailed checklist

The Netting and Exception Checking Logic of MRP

Summary

Netting calculation using the rescheduling assumption.
Logic for phantoms, transients, and self-consumed assemblies.
Rescheduling exception messages.
Additional exception messages.

Detailed checklist

Order Planning and Explosion

Summary

Determine the due date of the planned order.
Determine the quantity of the planned order.

Order policies of lot-for-lot and fixed are required.

Period order quantity of one week is required in a bucketless system.
Through the process of explosion reflect the planned orders in the component gross requirements.

Detailed checklist

Entry into the Planning Sequence for Processing

Summary

Enter all parts that require processing into the planning sequence.

Regeneration: Parts with requirements, orders, or allocations.

Net Change: As the result of transactions that have the potential to create an exception message or a change to a planned order.
Through the use of low level codes, or some other device, do the netting and order planning on a part only after all gross requirements have been posted to it.

Detailed checklist

Firm Planned Orders

Summary

Provide the ability to override the standard lead time or standard order quantity rules for a part.

Detailed checklist

Pegging

Summary

Provide a detailed listing of gross requirements showing the date, quantity, and parent item number.
Provide a detailed listing of allocations showing the date, quantity, and parent item number.

Detailed checklist

Human Engineering

Summary

A display of the time phased information, exception messages, and supporting details to any summary information.
Presentation of the information in a logical manner and in a convenient number of reports or displays.

Detailed checklist

Bill of Material Subsystem

Summary

The ability to store and maintain parent-component relationships.
A reporting function that includes the following:
Single level bills of material.

Multi-level bills of material.

Single level where-used listings.
Low level coding or the equivalent.
Net change system: The logic to update the gross requirements when the bills of material are changed.
The ability to assist in the implementation of engineering changes.
Engineering effectivity dates.

Bill of material deviations that are tied to an order.
The ability to assist in scheduling disassembly, sorting, and chemical processes with byproducts.

Detailed checklist

Inventory Transaction Subsystem

Summary

Handle the issue and receipt transactions
Support a multiple inventory location system.
Provide a way to reduce the inventory transaction volumes caused by a repetitive production process or smaller, more frequent lot sizes.
Support cycle counting.
Provide a method for sampling the inventory records.

Support a two step cycle counting process.
Provide a clear and easy-to-use audit trail for investigating inventory errors.

Detailed checklist

Scheduled Receipt Subsystem

Summary

The ability to add, delete, and change scheduled receipts.
Allocation logic and a component availability check.
The ability to add, change, and delete final assembly schedule orders.
A status reporting function.

Detailed checklist

Firm Planned Order Subsystem

Summary

Provide the means to add, change, and delete firm planned orders.
Update the component gross requirements whenever a firm planned order is added, changed, or deleted, or as part of the material requirements planning logic to reflect the firm planned order status.

Detailed checklist

Routing Subsystem

Summary

The ability to store and maintain item-work center relationships.
A reporting function that includes the following:
Routing by item.

Work center where-used listing.
Net change capacity planning system: The logic to update the capacity requirements when the routings are changed.

Detailed checklist

Scheduling and Dispatching

Summary

Maintain an open shop order file for each manufacturing scheduled receipt.
Provide back scheduling logic using normal scheduling rules to determine operation schedule dates for items handled through a dispatch list. This includes the ability to override the scheduling rules.
Provide a daily dispatch list showing the shop schedule for items handled through a dispatch list.
Support scheduling through a demand pull or KANBAN mechanism.
Provide a simple status report of all orders.

Detailed checklist

Capacity Requirements Planning

Summary

Generate capacity requirements from both planned and released orders.
A reporting function that includes the following:
A display of the total capacity requirements for each work center.

A display of the capacity requirements details for each work center.

A display by manufacturing family to assist in grouping items with similar set-ups.
Allow the orders to follow or deviate from the normal routing.

Detailed checklist

Input Output Control

Summary

Compare the planned and actual input and planned and actual output for a work center.

Detailed checklist

Supplier Scheduling and Related Purchasing Activities

Summary

Provide a vendor scheduling tool.
Provide a tool for vendor negotiations.
Maintain purchase order controls.

Schedule dates that include inspection.

Outside processing operations.

Detailed checklist

Distribution Resource Planning

Summary

Provide a method for developing distribution or interplant requirements and for posting them to the master production schedule at the supplying facility.
Maintain distribution information on scheduled receipts that are in transit to branch warehouses or branch plants.
Use the distribution requirements planning or interplant orders to generate and display the transportation plan.
Provide a method for handling a fixed shipping schedule.

Detailed checklist

Tool Planning and Control

Summary

Maintain tooling information:
Tooling descriptive information.

Tooling required by operation.

Tooling on-hand balance.

Tooling scheduled receipts.

Show tooling on shop paperwork.
Provide an MRP display for tooling.
Provide a capacity planning report including exceptions to show any conflicts in the use of tooling.

Detailed checklist

Financial Planning Interfaces

Summary

Provide a tool for calculating current inventory value and for projecting inventory value.
Provide a tool for planning cash flow.
Provide a tool for allocating fixed overhead expense.

Detailed checklist

Simulation

Summary

Provide a method for simulating the effects of changes to the production plan and master production schedule on:

The rough cut capacity plan.

The material requirements plan.

The capacity requirements plan.

The financial plan.

Detailed checklist

Performance Measurements

Summary

Provide a measurement of inventory record accuracy.
Provide a measurement of master production schedule performance.
Provide a measurement of manufacturing performance.
Provide a measurement of vendor performance.

Detailed checklist