Overview of Time Fence Planning
Time fences are boundaries between different periods in the planning horizon. They define short term regions within which planning restrictions minimize costly disruption to shop floor and supplier schedules.
Time fences also provide guidelines to establish where various restrictions or changes in operating procedures take place. For example, you can easily accomplish changes to the MPS beyond the cumulative lead time while changes inside the cumulative lead time are more difficult to accomplish. Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP and Supply Chain Planning makes use of three time fences: the planning time fence, demand time fence, and release time fence.
You can define planning, demand, and release time fence days for an item based on the cumulative manufacturing lead time, cumulative total lead time, total lead time, or a user-defined value.
You can also use the release time fence to stop the release of Kanban items from Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP and Supply Chain Planning into Oracle Work in Process and Oracle Purchasing.
Master Schedule Creation Using the Demand Time Fence
When you load forecasts and sales orders into a master schedule you can specify whether to use demand time fence control. You can specify whether you load forecasts outside the demand time fence, sales orders within the demand time fence, or ignore demand time fences. See: Selecting Master Schedule Load Options.
Material Planning with the Demand and Planning Time Fences
When you launch the planning process you can specify whether to consider planning, or demand time fence control. For an MPS plan, you can also choose to overwrite master schedule entries outside the planning time fence. For an MRP plan, you can overwrite all planned orders as well as firm planned orders that fall outside the planning time fence.
Planning Time Fences for Requisitions
Purchase requisitions and internal requisitions are not subject to planning time fence processes.
Material Planning with the Release Time Fence
When you define a plan or schedule name, you can allow the planning process to automatically release planned orders as standard discrete jobs in Oracle Work in Process, or as purchase requisitions in Oracle Purchasing.
You can also use the release time fence to stop the release of Kanban items from Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP and Supply Chain Planning.
