Main Features of Master Scheduling
The master schedule can include discrete and repetitive items. 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.
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.
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.
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.
An order for an MPS Planned item can be modified or added in the Planner Workbench, for MPS plans generated with the Memory-based Planning Engine.
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.
