Configure Supplier and Capacity Constraints

You can configure to constrain supplier capacity and resource capacity in a plan's options. With aggregate capacity planning, you can constrain resource capacity for specific work centers and constrain supplied component items at the product category level.

You have the flexibility to decide which capacity constraints to enforce in your plans and which ones not to enforce. Configure these constraint parameters on the Plan Options page, Supply tab from the Sales and Operations work area.

You can configure supply constraints to enforce supplier category capacity and work center resource capacity for the critical component items and bottleneck resources used in your aggregate bill of resources. For example, if a supplier allocates a fixed amount of supply due to their own global constraints, or if a manufacturing facility cannot exceed a known level of output, then you can enforce these constraints in your sales and operations plans.

Note: In a constrained plan, capacity utilization can exceed 100 percent for constrained work centers or supplier component categories depending on the Optimization Parameters you configure in Supply Advanced Options. Overloading can also occur in a constrained plan for unconstrained resources and suppliers.

Exception management identifies where there are performance gaps. You can tailor predefined exceptions to your specific requirements and use them in exception sets.

Supplier Capacity

To enforce supplier capacity, select the Consider supplier capacity constraints check box in the Constraints section on the Plan Options page, Supply tab. The planning process constrains supplier capacity at the component category level, not for an individual component item. You still have visibility to supplier item loading within the component category.

When constraining component categories, specify available supplier capacity for all items in the category. If you do not want to constrain a component category in a constrained plan, then do not specify available supplier capacity for its items.

In a supplier constrained plan, capacity utilization can exceed 100 percent for component categories depending on the Optimization Parameters you configure in Supply Advanced Options.

For example, the default value for the Penalty Cost Multiplier for Supplier Capacity Overloading parameter is 1000. You can overload the supplier category capacity to enforce demand due dates on time for assembly items.

Set this parameter to -1 to set a hard constraint on the supplier category capacity. With this setting, the capacity utilization cannot exceed 100 percent.

Supplier capacity overloading can still occur for supplied items in a constrained component category. The constraint is enforced at the component category level.

Resource Capacity

To enforce resource capacity, select the Consider work center capacity constraints check box in the Constraints section on the Plan Options page, Supply tab. The planning engine constrains resource capacity at the work center level, not for an individual resource. You still have visibility to resource loading within the work center.

You can select which work centers to constrain in manufacturing locations in plan options. You can also continue to generate resource requirements for resources in unconstrained work centers.

A work center containing resources without defined resource availability in either plan inputs or simulation set can’t be constrained when running a plan with data refresh. You must load resource availability to constrain the work centers. You can simulate adjustments to the Resource Availability measure when resource availability is defined for a work center.

In a resource constrained plan, resource utilization can exceed 100 percent for constrained work centers depending on the Optimization Parameters you configure in Supply Advanced Options.

For example, the default value for the Penalty Cost Multiplier for Resource Capacity Overloading parameter is 1000. You can overload the work center capacity to enforce demand due dates on time for assembly items.

Set this parameter to -1 to set a hard constraint on the work center capacity. With this setting, the capacity utilization cannot exceed 100 percent.

In a resource constrained plan, resource utilization cannot exceed 100 percent for constrained work centers. However, resource overloading can still occur for unconstrained work centers in the plan. An individual resource in a constrained work center can be overloaded. The constraint is enforced at the work center level.

Exceptions

Sales and Operations Planning provides predefined exceptions to use in constrained plans, such as Supplier Category Capacity Overloaded and Work Center Overloaded. These exceptions detect when capacity utilization for supplier component categories and work centers are fully loaded at 100 percent.