This chapter contains these topics:
To create a profile of a work center's load that the system uses to validate a forecast
To determine available capacity
To determine long-range requirements for a work center
To review the actual and planned load on work centers, either together (as a dispatch group) or individually
To understand the different ways you can view actual and planned load information
To set up Resource Requirements Planning (RRP)
Figure 7-1 Elements of Resource Requirements Planning
You generate a resource requirements plan after you generate your long-term forecast, but before you run the Master Scheduling program. Resource Requirements Planning uses data from a forecast of future sales to estimate the time and resources that are required to make a product.
RRP can help you resolve long-range planning issues, such as:
Expanding existing facilities
Acquiring new facilities
Staffing loads
Determining capital expenditures for equipment
RRP enables you to support your company's strategic business plan with a realistic tactical plan that:
Is shorter in range than the strategic plan and has a planning horizon of 12 months to 3 years
Allows planning at the product family level and is in greater detail than the strategic plan
Validates the monetary amounts allotted to the business plan as closely as possible
Demand forecasting is the logical starting point for developing a resource requirements plan. However, it is important to remember that the demand forecast is not the actual plan, but that you use it only as an input to the plan. Because you use the forecast in place of work orders, RRP provides an estimate of the time and resources that you will need to produce a product.
Manufacturing must determine whether the production plan is supportable as is or if additional future resource requirements are needed, such as:
Additional skilled labor
New machinery
New facilities or additional real estate
You must consider the following factors when you generate the resource requirement plan:
Include allowances for forecast error
Use inventory to absorb fluctuations in demand and to level the work center load
Weigh the cost of carrying inventory versus the cost of lost revenues if you are out of stock
The Resource Requirements Planning program generates a capacity plan by critical work center. In order to answer long-range planning questions, you need to know your current capacity and the requirements to support the planned work load.
Complete the following tasks:
Enter work centers
Determine available capacity
Determine long-range load
Generate resource requirements plans
Review resource requirements plans
Set up resource requirements plans
Entering work centers defines the work center as machine or labor-paced and whether it is a critical work center. You also specify other values, such as the percent efficiency and utilization of the work center and the crew.
After you estimate how much capacity you will need to produce a product, you must determine how much capacity you actually have. You determine a work center's available capacity on a given day by entering resource units.
Long-range load is an estimate of how many load hours are required to meet sales projections. To determine long-range load, the system uses resource profiles. The resource profile is a list of all work centers and their load requirements for a master scheduled item.
After you have entered resource units and resource profiles, you generate the resource requirements plan to obtain long-range estimates of the capacity needs at your work centers.
After you generate the resource requirements plan, the system creates a load profile that shows the load during each planning period for critical work centers. You can view this as a spreadsheet or as a graphical display. You can also review summaries of each period.
The system records resource requirements planning information in the following tables: