Master Scheduling

Overview of Master Scheduling

Supply Chain Planning users can employ additional functionality to manage demand and schedule production across multiple, interdependent organizations. See: Master Scheduling in Supply Chain Planning

Master scheduling is used for:

You use the schedules generated by master scheduling as input to other manufacturing functions, such as material requirements planning and rough-cut capacity planning.

Note: The planning products support Oracle Project Manufacturing's end item model/unit effectivity. The end-item model Unit Number field is visible if this featured is enabled allowing you to:

Master Demand Schedule

The MDS is a statement of demand and contains details of the anticipated shipment schedule. You can consolidate all sources of demand into a master demand schedule to represent a statement of total anticipated shipments. The master demand schedule provides an extra level of control that allows you to view and modify your statement of demand before creating a detailed production schedule. You can use the time-phased master demand schedule as input to the master production scheduling process or the material requirements planning process.

Some of the demand types that the MDS considers are:

Supply Chain Planning users can also manage interorganizational demand and create distribution requirements plans (DRP) from an MDS. See: Master Scheduling in Supply Chain Planning

Master Production Schedule (MPS)

The MPS is a statement of supply required to meet the demand for the items contained in the MDS. The master production schedule defines the anticipated build schedule for critical items. An effective master production schedule provides the basis for order promising and links the aggregate production plan to manufacturing by specific items, dates, and quantities. You can use the MPS to level or smooth production so that you effectively utilize capacity to drive the material requirements plan.

Note: Master Demand Scheduling (MDS) and Master Production Scheduling (MPS) have similar windows and functionality. Therefore, the documentation often refers to the more generic “Master Scheduling”. This document may use “Master Scheduling” to refer to “Master Demand Scheduling” or “Master Production Scheduling”.

Supply Chain Planning users can also run a multi-organization MPS and create distribution requirements plans (DRP) from an MPS. See: Master Scheduling in Supply Chain Planning

Main Features of Master Scheduling

Discrete and Repetitive Scheduling

The master schedule can include discrete and repetitive items. Discretely planned items include flow schedules. A specific schedule date and quantity defines a master schedule entry for a discretely manufactured item. A schedule start date, a rate end date, and a daily quantity define a master schedule entry for a repetitively manufactured item.

MDS

For a master demand schedule, the schedule date for a discrete item may or may not be a valid workday. The start and end dates for a repetitive item must be valid workdays since repetitive planning does not consider non-workdays.

MPS

For a master production schedule, the schedule date for discrete items and the start and end dates for repetitive items must be valid workdays.

Master Schedule Entries for Product Family Items

The master schedule shows sales order entries for product family items when you load sales orders for their member items. They also show demand schedule entries for product family items loaded from the forecasts.

Roll the MPS Plan Forward

You can append planned orders to the MPS plan as time passes without affecting the existing plan.

Forecast and Planning Configurations

You can schedule configurations on your master schedule. Configurations may represent unique, one time combinations of options that were ordered, or they may represent standard, often-ordered sets of options.

Identify Conflicts in Schedules

You can identify conflicts between desirable schedules and attainable schedules using rough-cut capacity planning. Rough-cut capacity planning converts the master schedule into an assessment of available and required capacity and its impact on key resources such as bottleneck work centers and long lead time items/equipment. It lets you evaluate the probability of success before implementation. You can use rough-cut capacity to simulate different scenarios and compare multiple master schedules.

Schedule Spares Demand

You introduce spare parts demand into an MPS plan by manually defining spares requirements as master demand schedule entries. You can also forecast spares demand and load the forecast into the master schedule.

Available to Promise

You can include a master production schedule as supply for your available to promise calculations.

Add MPS Firm Planned Orders

An order for an MPS Planned item can be modified or added in the Planner Workbench.

Master Schedule at Any Level

You can master schedule items that exist at any level of the bill of material. The master production schedule then operates separately from the material requirements plan, although it might include demand for items that are also parents of MPS items. Similarly, the MRP plan may also include both MPS planned and MRP planned items.

Project and Seiban References

If you are working in a project-based or Seiban environment, you can include project/Seiban and task references to your schedule entries. These references will accompany and drive the material planning process. See: Defining Schedule Entries Manually

Loading the Master Schedule from Multiple Sources

You can derive the master schedule from a forecast, another master schedule, source lists, or directly from sales orders. You can define your master schedule or modify entries loaded from other sources.

Supply Chain Planning users can also load DRP planned orders. See: Loading the Supply Chain Master Schedule from Multiple Sources

When you derive your master schedule from an existing schedule, you can modify your master schedule quantities using a modification percentage or you can shift master schedule dates by specifying a number of carry forward days.

Interorganization Orders

You can load planned order demand from a requesting organization into the master demand schedule of the supplying organization. Supply Chain Planning users can run a sequence of MRP processes for organizations to produce valid multi-organizational material plans.

Supply Chain Planning users can define multiorganization replenishment strategies with sourcing rules and bills of distribution. See: Sourcing Rules and Bills of Distribution

Import Master Schedules from Outside Sources

You can import master schedule information generated by other systems into Oracle MRP through the Open Master Schedule Interface. Oracle MRP validates the imported information before it loads the information into a master schedule.

Oracle MRP gives you the option to define work date control when importing master schedules. You can choose to reject master schedules entries that are submitted on invalid workdays or can choose to have them move forward or backward to the next valid workday.

Schedule Management

You can monitor your master demand schedule as customer shipments occur by utilizing the MDS relief process.

You can maintain credible priorities or schedule dates and update your master production schedule either manually or automatically through the MPS relief process. You can report and implement the MPS by exception, only for those items that require attention.

Various reports and inquiries are available to give you detailed information on your master schedule status.

Automatic MPS Relief

You can automatically maintain your master production schedule with the auto-reduce MPS attribute you specify for the item in the item master in Oracle Inventory. For each item, you can specify a point in time after which you no longer want the item to appear on the MPS. This point in time can be the demand time fence, the planning time fence, or the current date depending on your business practices.

Master Scheduling by Demand Class

You can optionally associate a demand class to a master demand schedule or master production schedule when you define the master schedule name. When you ship a sales order or create a discrete job, that sales order or discrete job relieves the master schedules that are associated with the demand class of the sales order or discrete job.

You can load a subset of the sales orders into your master schedule for a specific demand class.

See also Overview of Capacity Planning, Oracle Capacity User's Guide

MPS Explosion Level

For MDS entries, this defines the lowest level at which an MPS planned part appears in the bill of material structure for the item. When you generate an MPS plan, the process does not explode beyond this level. This reduces MPS processing time.

The default value comes from the Max Bill Levels field in the Bill of Materials Parameters window. Enter a value in the Master Demand Schedule Items window to override the default. This value must be an integer and cannot be greater than 60.

Note: You should be extremely cautious when entering a value here. If you are unsure of the lowest level that an MPS part exists, use the default value. The explosion process explodes through the entire bill of material. See: Defining Bills of Material Parameters, Oracle Bills of Material User's Guide.

See also Defining Schedule Entries Manually

Defining a Schedule Name

Before you define a master schedule manually or load a schedule from another source, you first define a name. You can also set several options for each name.

Defining an MPS name in Supply Chain Planning involves extra steps. Supply Chain Planning users should refer to Defining a Supply Chain MPS Name for further instructions.

If you launch a plan with an MPS names, you can also make a copy that is identical to the original. You can then view, implement, and replan either copy, discarding the altered plan at any time and preserving the original data. See: Making a Copy of a Completed Plan

To define a schedule name

  1. Navigate to the Master Demand Schedules or Master Production Schedules window (MDS Names and MPS Names in the menu).

  2. Enter a name and description.

  3. Optionally, select a demand class.

  4. Save your work.

    You can now define a master schedule manually, or load a schedule from another source, with the name(s) you created.

To set additional MPS options

  1. In the MPS window check Inventory ATP. You can optionally include your MPS plan as available supply when you calculate available to promise information in Oracle Inventory.

  2. In the MPS window, check Feedback to monitor the quantity of the planned order that has been implemented as discrete jobs, purchase orders, or purchase requisitions. This provides the planner visibility of the status of the plan at any point in time.

  3. In the MPS window, check Production to enable a plan to auto-release planned orders. See: Auto-release Planned Orders

To set relief options for a schedule name

In addition to the steps above, enter the following information:

  1. Check Relieve to relieve schedule entries.

    For master demand schedules, all sales order shipments relieve the appropriate schedule entries (shipment relief). For master production schedules, when you create discrete jobs, flow schedules, purchase orders, or purchase requisitions, you relieve schedule entries (production relief).

    If you associate a demand class with your schedule, the relief process updates those schedule entries whose demand class matches a sales order, discrete job, flow schedule, purchase order, or purchase requisition.

  2. Save your work.

To disable a schedule name

Note: You can view disabled schedules but not modify them.

  1. Navigate to the Master Demand Schedules or Master Production Schedules window.

  2. Query a schedule name.

  3. Enter an inactive-on date.

  4. Save your work.

    See Also

    Defining Schedule Entries Manually

    Schedule Relief

    Available to Promise (ATP)

Defining Schedule Entries Manually

A schedule entry is a unique relationship between an item, date, and quantity on a master schedule. You define schedule entries by adding items to schedule names, then defining detailed date and quantity information for each item.

Manually defining an MPS entry in Supply Chain Planning involves extra steps. Supply Chain Planning users should refer to Defining a Supply Chain MPS Entry Manually for further instructions.

To define schedule entries manually

  1. Navigate to the Master Demand Schedules or Master Production Schedules window (MDS Names or MPS Names in the menu).

  2. Select a schedule name.

  3. Choose Items to open the Master Demand Schedule Items or Master Production Schedule Items window.

    You can choose the Folder menu to customize your display. See: Customizing the Presentation of Data in a Folder, Oracle Applications User's Guide.

  4. Enter an item with an MRP planning method of MPS Planning. See: Defining Items: Oracle Inventory User's Guide

  5. Enter a different MPS explosion level, if you want to change the default. See: MPS Explosion Level

  6. Choose Detail to open the Master Demand Schedule Entries window or Master Production Schedule Entries window.

  7. Enter a date.

    For MDS, this is the date of shipment. For an MPS, this is the completion date of production.

    For repetitive items, whether MDS or MPS, this is the start date of production

  8. For repetitive items, enter an end date of production.

  9. Enter a current quantity.

    This also becomes the original quantity and the total. Schedule reliefs reduce the current quantity. Schedule reliefs plus the current quantity equals the total.

  10. If you are working in a project environment, enter a valid project and task reference.

    Note: Your ability to enter project and task references is determined by the organization parameters set in Oracle Inventory. If the project control level is set to project, then the task column will be dimmed, preventing you from entering task references. If the control level is set to task, you can enter references into both columns. See: Setting Up Project MRP in Oracle Inventory

    Note: The Unit Number. field is visible if you have enabled Oracle Project Manufacturing's end item model/unit effectivity feature. See: Model/Unit Effectivity, Oracle Project Manufacturing Implementation Manual.

  11. Check Reliefs if you want this entry to be decremented when you create purchase orders, purchase requisitions or discrete jobs - whether you define the purchase requisitions or jobs manually or load them with the Planner Workbench.

  12. Save your work.

    See Also

    Schedule Relief

    Source Flag

Loading a Master Schedule from an Internal Source

To load a master schedule from an internal source

  1. Navigate to the Load/Copy/Merge Master Demand Schedule or Load/Copy/Merge Master Production Schedule window.

  2. Choose one of the following names:

    • Load/Copy/Merge MDS

    • Copy/Merge MPS

    • Load MPS

  3. In the Parameters window, enter a destination schedule.

  4. Select a source type. See: Source Type Field

  5. Select a source organization.

  6. Select source name.

  7. Select a start date and a cutoff date.

  8. Select from a number of load options. See: Selecting Master Schedule Load Options

  9. Choose Submit Request.

Source Type Filed

You can load a master schedule from any of the following internal sources:

Loading a master schedule in Supply Chain Planning involves extra steps. See: Loading a Supply Chain MPS from and Internal Source

Specific Forecast

When you load a master schedule from a forecast, Oracle MRP includes forecast entries as follows:

From To
Start day minus backward consumption days Cutoff date

The load converts forecast entries for repetitive items into repetitive entries in the master schedule - even if the original forecast entry does not have a forecast end date.

Master demand and production schedule entries for repetitive items must fall on valid workdays.

Interorg Planned Orders

You can load planned order demand from one or more requesting organizations into the master demand schedule of a supplying organization.

the picture is described in the document text

For example, Org 1 is the requesting organization. Org 1 considers the workstation an MRP-planned item, internally replenished by Org 2. Org 2 manufactures the workstation, where it is an MPS-planned item. The manufactured workstation includes a monitor that Org 2 receives from Org 3.

To produce a valid multi-organization material plan, you:

Sales Orders Only

With this source type, you can load either:

Note: The Planning Manager must be running to guarantee a consistent picture of demand. The load master schedule process does not pick up any demand for sales orders that you place more recently than the last execution of the planning manager.

Specific MDS or Specific MPS

You can:

This feature is most useful to copy an existing schedule and modify the copy. You can apply a modification percent to the new schedule and/or move schedule entries forward or backward by a specific number of days.

Modification Percent

To increase the quantity of the new schedule, specify a percent by which to multiply the schedule entries. Oracle MRP adds the result of the multiplication to the existing quantities. To decrease the new schedule, enter a negative percent.

For example, to increase an existing schedule entry of 100 by 10 percent, specify a modification percent of 10. The resulting schedule entry is 110. To decrease an existing schedule entry of 100 by 10 percent, enter a modification percent of -10. The resulting schedule entry is 90.

Carry Forward Days

To move schedule entries forward in time, specify a number of workdays. To move schedule entries backward, enter a negative number. Holidays are not recognized as workdays; the previous valid workday is used instead.

For example, the existing schedule contains an entry of 100 on Monday. Wednesday is a holiday. The following Saturday and Sunday are not workdays. If you wish to move the schedule entry to the next Monday, specify four carry forward days.

Source Lists

With this source type you can:

Selecting Master Schedule Load Options

For each type of master schedule load (for example, from a forecast or from interorganization planned orders), you choose a number of load options. Not all options apply to all load types.

Include Sales Orders:

To include sales orders in the load, select:

Sales Order Demand Class:

To limit the sales orders loaded to a particular demand class, select a demand class. Only sales order items from this demand class are loaded.

Demand Time Fence:

To limit the source forecast with a demand time fence, select:

Load forecast outside demand time fence only: Ignore forecast entries on and within the demand time fence. When you include sales orders and consume forecasts, this option loads sales orders within the demand time fence, and the greater of sales orders and forecasts outside the demand time fence.

Load orders within and forecast outside demand time fence: Load only sales orders on and within the demand time fence, and only forecast entries outside the demand time fence.

Ignore demand time fence: Ignore the demand time fence. When you include sales orders and consume forecasts, this option loads all forecast demand across the planning horizon.

Note: Use the include sales orders option to also load sales order demand across the planning horizon.

Overwrite

Overwrite To overwrite the existing entries of the destination schedule, select: All entries: Erase all existing master schedule entries associated with the master schedule name and load new entries.

For example, if you load master schedules MS-A and MS-B into master schedule MS-C the first time and then load master schedule MS-B into master schedule MS-C the second time, the result is that MS-C contains master schedules from the second load of MS-B.

Same source only: Erase only the entries with a source that has been previously loaded into the master schedule. This allows you to update master schedule information with the latest picture of the sales orders, updated forecasts or master schedules.

For example, if you load master schedules MS-A and MS-B into master schedule MS-C the first time and then load master schedule MS-B into master schedule MS-C the second time, the result is that MS-C contains master schedules from the first load of MS-A and the second load of MS-B.

Or, if you load sales orders into master schedule MS-C the first time and then load sales orders again using this option. Master schedule MS-C reflects all the current sales orders including those booked in the interim of the first and second loads.

To add new entries to the destination schedule, select:

No: This loads new entries, but does not erase existing master schedule entries.

Start Date

Select the start date of your schedule.

If you specify a start date Oracle MRP first selects the planning BOM entries that start outside the start date, then explodes those entries. When you load a forecast into an MDS, the master schedule load inserts all the forecast entries after the start date minus backward update consumption days for the forecast set. The start date does not apply to exploded entries that fall before start date due lead time offsetting from planning BOM entries that start after the forecast load start date.

Cutoff Date

Select the cutoff date of your schedule.

When you load a forecast into an MDS, the master schedule load inserts all the forecast entries prior to the cutoff date and adds forward update consumptions days for the forecast set.

Explode

Select Yes to explode the schedule entries, down to the MPS explosion level. See MPS Explosion Level.

Quantity Type:

To load forecast quantities, select:

Current: This loads the original forecast quantity minus any consumption quantities. When you choose this option, you cannot choose to consume the forecast, since the forecast quantities have already subtracted sales order demand.

Original: This loads the forecast without any consumption. When you choose this option, you should choose to consume the forecast if you intend to load the master schedule using forecasts and sales orders. Consuming the original forecast ensures that demand is not overstated.

Note: To ensure a consistent picture of demand, you should load sales orders and forecasts during the same load process, rather then loading them in two separate steps. If you load them separately, and you create sales orders in the interim, you could overstate or understate demand. For example, suppose you define a forecast entry for 100 on 01-FEB and load it into the master schedule. You create a sales order for 30 on 01-FEB. The forecast is consumed to 70, but the master schedule remains at 100. You then load sales orders as a separate step. The total demand for 01-FEB becomes 130, which overstates the actual and forecasted demand. If you launched a single process instead of two, you would see a forecast of 100 and no sales order demand, or a forecast of 70 and a sales order for 30. Either way, the correct demand of 100 results

Consume

Modification Percent

Enter a percent by which to multiple the schedule entries.

Carry Forward Days

Enter a number of workdays to move the schedule forward in time. To move the schedule backward, enter a negative number.

Note: When you specify carry forward days, the start date and cutoff date apply to the destination schedule, This allows schedule entries before the start date or after the cutoff date to be loaded.

Backward Consumption Days

Enter a number of workdays the consumption process will move backward when looking for a forecast quantity to consume. See: Backward and Forward Consumption Days.

Outlier Percent

Enter the maximum percent of the original forecast that a sales order can consume. See: Outlier Update Percent

Additional Factors Affecting a Master Schedule Load

There are several additional factors that can cause the destination master schedule to differ from the source forecast or source master schedule:

Source Flag

Oracle MRP stores the source of each master schedule entry. This allows you to later trace the source of master schedule entries.

Note: If you manually update a master schedule entry in the item Master Schedule Entries window, Oracle MRP changes the source to Manual.

How Forecasted Discrete Items Appear in the Master Schedule

When you load a forecast entry with no end date into the master schedule for a discretely planned item, the schedule entry consists of a schedule date and quantity.

If the forecast is bucketed in days, the schedule date on the master schedule reflects each day of the forecast. If the forecast is bucketed into weeks or periods, the schedule date on the master schedule reflects the first day of either the weekly or periodic bucket. For example:

Forecast for Discrete Item
Bucket Forecast Date Rate End Date Forecast Quantity
Days 04-Jan . 100
Weeks 17-Jan . 200
Periods 31-Jan . 400
Forecast Loaded into Master Schedule
Schedule Date Rate End Date Quantity Daily Quantity
04-Jan . 100 .
17-Jan . 200 .
31-Jan . 400 .

When you load a forecast entry with an end date into the master schedule, the schedule entry consists of a schedule date and quantity. If the forecast is bucketed into days, there is a schedule entry for each day between the forecast date and the forecast end date. If the forecast entry is in weekly or periodic buckets, the schedule date is the first day of either the weekly or periodic bucket.

For example:

Forecast for Discrete Item
Bucket Forecast Date Rate End Date Forecast Quantity
Days 04-Jan 06-Jan 100
Weeks 17-Jan 24-Jan 200
Periods 31-Jan 28-Feb 400
Forecast Loaded into Master Schedule
Schedule Date Rate End Date Quantity Daily Quantity
04-Jan . 100 .
05-Jan . 100 .
06-Jan . 200 .
17-Jan . 200 .
24-Jan . 200 .
31-Jan . 400 .
28-Feb . 400 .

How Forecasted Repetitive Items Appear in the Master Schedule

When you load a forecast entry with no end date into the master schedule for a repetitively planned item, the schedule entry consists of a schedule date rate end date. The rate end date on a weekly or periodic forecast is the last bucket that Oracle MRP loads into the master schedule. If it falls before the cutoff date you enter daily quantity.

If the forecast is in daily buckets, the schedule date and the rate end date are the same. If the forecast is bucketed in weeks or periods, the schedule date is the first day of the week or period, and the schedule end date is the end of that week or period. The daily quantity is what was forecasted for that week or period divided by the number of days in that time frame. For example:

Forecast for Discrete Item
Bucket Forecast Date Rate End Date Forecast Quantity
Days 04-Jan . 100
Weeks 17-Jan . 200
Periods 31-Jan . 400
Forecast Loaded into Master Schedule
Schedule Date Rate End Date Quantity Daily Quantity
04-Jan 04-Jan. . 100.
17-Jan 21-Jan. . 40 (assuming 5 workdays)
31-Jan 26-Feb. . 20 (assuming 20 workdays)

When you load a forecast entry with an end date into the master schedule for a repetitively planned item, the schedule entry consists of a schedule date, a rate end date, and a daily quantity. If the forecast is in daily buckets, the schedule date is the same as the forecast date, and the rate end date is the same as the forecast end date. The forecasted quantity becomes the daily quantity. If the forecast is in weekly or periodic buckets, the schedule date is the first day of the week or period, and the schedule end date is the end of that week or period. The daily quantity is what was forecast for that week or period divided by the number of days in that time frame.

For example:

Forecast for Repetitive Item
Bucket Forecast Date Rate End Date Forecast Quantity
Days 04-Jan 06-Jan 100
Weeks 17-Jan 24-Jan 200
Periods 31-Jan 28-Feb 400
Forecast Loaded into Master Schedule
Schedule Date Rate End Date Quantity Daily Quantity
04-Jan 04-Jan. . 100.
17-Jan 21-Jan. . 40 (assuming 5 workdays)
24-Jan 28-Jan . 40
31-Jan 26-Feb. . 20 (assuming 20 workdays)
28-Feb 26-Mar . 20

If you specify rounding control for an item, the load process does round up any fractional quantities. The load process considers any additional quantity calculated due to rounding as excess when calculating future time buckets.

For example:

Forecast for Repetitive Item with Rounding
Bucket Forecast Date Rate End Date Forecast Quantity
Days 08-Feb 11-Feb 100
Weeks 14-Feb 11-Mar 518
Forecast Loaded into Master Schedule with Rounding
Schedule Date Rate End Date Quantity Daily Quantity
08-Feb 11-Feb . 100.
14-Feb 18-Feb . 104
21-Feb 25-Feb . 104
28-Feb 04-Mar . 103
07-Mar 11-Mar . 104

Note the period from 28-FEB through 04-MAR only requires 103 a day since the previous periods spanning 14-FEB through 25-FEB are overestimates due to rounding.

Planning Spares Demand

Master scheduling is effective for planning spares demand, when spares items are also components of end products. Demand for spares or replacements is another form of independent demand.

The planning method appropriate for spares demand may be MPS planning or MRP planning. Use MPS planning if the item has spares demand and still requires personal control. The MPS planning process plans the spares demand, and you can manually adjust the quantities/dates of the resulting master schedule entries before you use the master schedule for your material requirements plan.

To manually include spares demand in the master schedule:

Follow the procedure for defining a master schedule manually. See: Defining Schedule Entries Manually.

To forecast spares demand and load results into the master schedule:

Follow the procedure for loading a master schedule from a forecast. See: Loading a Master Schedule From an Internal Source.

Schedule Relief

Shipment Relief

Oracle MRP relieves (updates) MDS schedule quantities when you ship sales order items. Shipment (MDS) relief prevents the duplication of demand that could result if you load sales orders into the master demand schedule, but do not relieve the master demand schedule upon shipment. Without relief, you would need to reload and replan your master schedule just before planning material requirements each time to obtain an accurate picture of supply and demand for your independent demand items.

Shipping a sales order item relieves each MDS name for which you set the check Relieve. You set shipment relief when you define the master schedule name before you define or load a schedule for that name. If you associate a demand class with your MDS, the shipment relief process relieves the MDS entries that correspond to the demand class associated with the sales order.

You can change the shipment relief option after initially creating your master schedule. If you change the shipment relief on an MDS from On to Off, shipment relief stops occurring against that master schedule. If you change the shipment relief option from Off to On, shipment relief occurs on that master schedule from the date you change the option onward.

For repetitive master demand schedule items, the Planning Manager begins at the start date of the schedule rate and relieves the schedule entry by eliminating days according to the rate. For example, suppose you have a master demand schedule with a daily quantity of 10 per day over 5 days, beginning on Monday. You ship a sales order with a quantity of 12. The planning manager consumes the first day of the rate, accounting for 10 out of 12 shipped units. For the remaining 2 units, the planning manager creates a new schedule entry beginning and ending on Tuesday, with a daily quantity of 8 (10 minus 2). The planning manager then resets the start date of the first schedule entry from Monday to Wednesday, and maintains the daily quantity of 10 per day.

Production Relief

Oracle MRP relieves (updates) MPS schedule quantities when you create purchase orders, purchase requisitions or discrete jobs - whether you define the purchase requisitions or jobs manually or load them with the Planner Workbench.

Production (MPS) relief prevents the duplication of supply. Without relief, you would need to replan your master schedule just before planning material requirements each time to obtain an accurate picture of supply and demand for your MPS planned items.

Creating a purchase order, purchase requisition, or discrete job relieves each MPS name for which you check Relieve. You set production relief when you define the master schedule name - before you enter or load a schedule for that name. If you associate a demand class with your MPS, the production relief process relieves the MPS entries that correspond to the demand class associated with the discrete job.

You can change the production relief option after initially creating your master schedule. If you set or unset the production relief on an MPS name, production relief stops occurring against that master schedule. If you change the production relief option from Off to On, production relief occurs on that master schedule from the date you change the option onward.

Oracle MRP also updates the MPS schedule quantities when you reschedule discrete jobs, or when you change discrete job, purchase order, or purchase requisition quantities.

Note: Oracle MRP does not consume MPS entries for repetitive items. Repetitive schedules are recalculated each time the planning process runs. Therefore, it does not decrease the MPS for repetitive items.

MPS Relief of Phantoms

If you define any phantom items with a planning method of MPS Planned, production relief occurs when the discrete job for the phantom's parent is created.

Supply Chain Planning users can also relieve production schedules for phantom items with a planning method of MPS/DRP Planned.

Maintaining the Accuracy of the MPS

Typically, when Oracle MRP relieves a master production schedule, it decrements (decreases) one or more schedule entries because you created a discrete job or purchase requisition, or increased the quantity on an existing job or requisition. However, when you decrease the quantity on an existing job or purchase requisition, close the job short of the full job quantity, or cancel the requisition line, Oracle MRP increments (increases) one or more schedule entries, if possible. Oracle MRP never increments a schedule entry by more than the original schedule amount.

Viewing Master Schedule Relief Information

You can view itemized information about the sales order shipments and discrete jobs that relieve your master demand and master production schedules respectively with the MDS Reliefs or MPS Reliefs window. The original schedule quantity shows you the quantity before schedule relief. The current schedule quantity is the relieved schedule quantity. The difference between the original and current quantity is the sum of all relief activity against the master schedule entry.

To compare this picture of your master schedule with previous or future versions, you can copy your master schedule periodically (by using the Load/Copy/Merge Master Schedule window) and store the copy for later comparison. Use the Schedule Comparison report to compare the different schedules.

Profile Options for Master Schedule Relief

You have the option to temporarily disable shipment and production relief by setting the MRP:Consume MDS profile and MRP:Consume MPS profile options to No. The Planning Manager verifies the setting of this option before performing shipment and/or production relief. If it is set to No, the Planning Manager does not update MDS and/or MPS entries. The Planning Manager processes any sales order shipments and/or purchase requisitions and discrete jobs occurring while this profile is set to No when you set the profile option back to Yes.

Note that this affects all master demand and master production schedules that have relief set to Yes.

You can also specify the direction in which the production relief takes place by using the MRP: MPS Relief Direction profile option. If you specify Backward, then forward, Oracle Master Scheduling and Supply Chain Planning relieves master production schedule entries backwards from the discrete job due date then forwards until it finds enough schedule quantity to relieve. If you specify Forward only, Oracle Master Scheduling and Supply Chain Planning relieves master production schedule entries only forward from the discrete job due date until it finds enough schedule quantity to relieve.

Note: When you change any of these profile options you must restart the Planning Manager to activate the new profile option.

Planning Manager and Schedule Relief

Planning Manager and Schedule Relief

The Planning Manager is the background process that manages shipment and production relief.

For shipment relief, the Planning Manager first looks for the specific sales order entry to find a specific schedule entry to relieve. If it does not find an entry for that exact sales order date, the Planning Manager begins at the oldest schedule entry for the item and moves forward in time, decrementing schedule entry quantities until is reaches the sales order shipment quantity.

For example, suppose you have MDS entries of 10 each on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. If you ship a sales order for 25 on Tuesday, the relief process deducts 10 on Tuesday (leaving 0), deducts 10 on Monday (leaving 0), and deducts the remaining 5 on Wednesday (leaving 5). Thus, the new master schedule entries are quantity 0, 0, and 5 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively.

For production relief, the Planning Manager first looks at the discrete job due date to find an MPS schedule entry to relieve. It then looks backward, up to the first schedule entry, and then forward until it finds enough schedule quantity to relieve.

For example, suppose you have MPS entries of 10 each on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and you specify the MRP: MPS Relief Direction profile option as Backward, then forward. If you create a discrete job for 25 on Tuesday, the relief process deducts 10 on Tuesday (leaving 0), deducts 10 on Monday (leaving 0), and deducts the remaining 5 on Wednesday (leaving 5). Thus, the new master schedule entries are quantity 0, 0, and 5 on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively.

Note: When it operates, the Planning Manager may run for a very short time only, making it difficult to determine whether is it running. To be sure, examine the messages in the Planning Manager window. Messages should increment periodically. Whether you use shipment or production relief, you should activate the planning manager and leave it running. The planning manager performs maintenance tasks vital to the proper operation of Oracle MRP.

See Also

Starting the Planning Manager

Tracking Demand Schedule Reliefs

You can track reliefs against a Master Demand Schedule for both the product family and the member items. You cannot track reliefs against a Master Production Schedule at the product family item level because the MPS for a product family item does not get relieved when the MPS for the member item gets relieved.

The procedure for tracking reliefs for a product family item is the same as that for any individual item.

To see which orders relieved the MDS, do this:

  1. Navigate to the Item Master Demand Schedule Entries window.

  2. Query to find the schedule you are interested in tracking.

  3. Navigate to the Schedule Entry for the product family item.

  4. Click the Reliefs button to see the order quantity and relief quantity for each order.

See Also

Rough Cut Capacity Planning

RCCP verifies that you have sufficient capacity available to meet the capacity requirements for your master schedules. It is a long-term capacity planning tool used to balance required and available capacity, and to negotiate changes to the master schedule and/or available capacity. You can change your master schedules by changing master schedule dates and increasing or decreasing master schedule quantities. You can change your available capacity by adding or removing shifts, using overtime or subcontracted labor, and adding or removing machines.

Use RCCP to validate your master schedules against key and critical resources before you use the planning process to generate detailed MRP plans. You can perform rough cut capacity planning at two levels:

See Also