Resource Plan by Category and Quarter Views

The Resource Plan by Category and Quarter views provide you with capacity insight to simplify data analysis. The table and graph also enable you to make quicker decisions to improve efficiency in your sales and operations planning process.

Use the Resource Plan by Category and Quarter views to focus on assembly items linked to critical resources to ensure that supply can meet strategic needs. The views simplify data analysis by highlighting product category mix for shared work center resources and enables better rough-cut decisions for sales opportunities in constrained plans.

The Resource Plan by Category and Quarter table combines the resource and product dimensions to help you review and adjust resource loading.

The Resource Plan by Category and Quarter graph compares Resource Requirements by Assembly Item with Resource Availability. Resource Requirements by Assembly Item appears as a bar chart stacked by product category. The Resource Availability measure has resource as a conforming dimension, not product, so it isn't associated with assembly items.

By using the graph to analyze resource loading, you can use both the Net Resource Availability (also a resource measure not conforming to the product dimension) and Resource Quantity by Assembly Item measures in the table to determine how many more assembly items you can produce.

For example, a provider of tablet computers wants to increase Quarter 2 sales revenue. They must ensure that there is enough capacity during the Supply Review phase of their sales and operations planning cycle. By analyzing the Resource Plan by Category and Quarter graph, the planner can see there is available capacity in their constrained work center and the current requirements by product category. The planner then uses the Resource Plan by Category and Quarter table to determine how much more product they can produce by category to consume the available capacity. After a brief analysis, the planner adjusts Quarter 2 forecasts and runs a plan simulation to validate the changes before approving the plan.

To report resource requirements by assembly item in a sales and operations plan, select the Report resource requirements by assembly check box in the plan options. The check box is located in the Supply: Advanced Options dialog box, General tab.