Inventory Planning – part 8 (Purchase Planning in Microsoft Dynamics NAV)

Planning Process

Process of purchase planning start in Requisition Worksheets window. You can find it on Purchase->Planning->Requisition Worksheets.

When you open this windows, you need to enter purchase plan.

Lists items that you want to order. You can enter items in the worksheet in the following ways:

• Enter the items manually in the worksheet and fill in the relevant fields.
• Use the Calculate Plan batch job. This calculates a replenishment plan for items and SKU that have been set up with a replenishment system of Purchase or Transfer. When you use this batch job, the program automatically fills in the Action Message field with a suggestion for an action you can take to replenish the item. This could be increasing the item quantity on an existing order or creating a new order, for example.
• If you have used the Calculate Plan batch job from the Planning Worksheet window to calculate a replenishment plan, you can use the Carry Out Action Message batch job to copy purchase and transfer order proposals from the planning worksheet to the requisition worksheet. This is practical if separate users are responsible for handling production orders and purchase/transfer orders.
• You can use the Drop Shipment function to fill in the requisition worksheet lines. This function uses the Get Sales Orders batch job to determine the sales order lines that you want to designate for a drop shipment.
• You can use the Special Order function to fill in the requisition worksheet lines. This function uses the Get Sales Orders batch job to determine the sales order lines that you want to designate for a special order.

Requisition worksheet lines contain detailed information about the items that need to be reordered. You can edit and delete the lines to adjust your replenishment plan, and you can further process the lines by using the Carry Out Action Message batch job.

For details about planning with locations and transfers, see More Information.

Red Text

The system may sometimes suggest planning lines that need extra attention by the planner before they can be accepted. On such lines, the Accept Action Message field is by default not checked and the critical element is highlighted with red font:

• If a planning line suggests a starting time earlier than the work date, the value in the Starting Date-Time field will be red.
• If a planning line suggest to change a released purchase or production order, the value in Ref. Order No. field will be red.

Calculate Plan Function

You can run this command from Requisition Worksheets window.

Calculates a supply plan for items and SKU that have the Replenishment System field set to Purchase, Prod. Order, Assembly, or Transfer.

You can select one of the following calculation methods:

• Calculate Regenerative Plan: Use this method to plan for all items, regardless of changes since the previous planning run. You calculate a regenerative plan when there are changes to master data or capacity, such as shop calendars, that affect all items and therefore the whole supply plan.
• Calculate Net Change Plan: Use this method to only plan for items that had the following types of changes to their demand-supply pattern since the last planning run:
  • Change in demand for the item, such as forecast, sales, or component lines.
  • Change in the master data or in planned supply for the item. This can be changes to the BOM or routing, changes to planning parameters, or unplanned inventory differences.
  • You calculate a net change plan to save time and system resources when the demand-supply pattern has not changed for all items since the last planning run.

The Calculate Plan batch job performs the following steps:

1. Investigates the demand and supply situation of the item and calculates the projected available balance. The balance is calculated as: Inventory + Scheduled Receipts + Planned Receipts - Gross Requirement
2. States net requirements for the item.

Creates an item replenishment plan to fulfill net requirements. The plan is presented in the planning worksheet as detailed order proposal lines that are accompanied by action messages that suggest specific user actions. The action message options are:

• New: Creates new supply orders
• Change Qty.: Changes quantity on existing supply orders
• Reschedule: Reschedules existing supply orders
• Resched. & Chg.: Reschedules existing supply orders and changes the quantity of existing supply orders
• Cancel: Cancels excess supply orders

You can accept the action message on the planning line and process it further. If you do not want to accept it, then you can also manually change or delete lines in the planning worksheet.

When you have approved a planning line for purchase, production, assembly, or transfer, you use the Carry Out Action Msg. - Plan. batch job to convert the line to a purchase order line, a production or assembly order, or a transfer order line.

• Starting Date: Specifies the date to use for any new orders. This date is used to evaluate inventory. If inventory is below the reorder point, then the replenishment order is scheduled forward from this date.

Only supply and demand events with due dates on or after the starting date are considered by the planning run. Any events with due dates before the planning starting date are consolidated into one emergency supply order for the item to arrive on the planning starting date. For more information, see Warning.

• Ending Date: Specifies the date where the planning period ends. Demand is not included beyond this date.
• Stop and Show First Error: Specifies whether to stop the planning run when it encounters an error. If the planning run stops, then a message is displayed with information about the first error. If an error exists, then only the successful planning lines that were made before the error was encountered are included in the planning worksheet.

If you do not select this field, then the Calculate Plan batch job continues until it has completed, and errors will not interrupt the batch job. If one or more errors exist, then a message is displayed after completion saying how many items are affected. The Planning Error Log window then opens to provide more details about the error and links to the affected item card or cards.

• Use Forecast: Specifies a forecast that should be included as demand when running the planning batch job.
• Exclude Forecast Before: Specifies how much of the selected forecast to include in the planning run by entering a date before which forecast demand is not included.
• Respect Planning Parameters for Supply Triggered by Safety Stock: By default, this field is selected. Supply on planning lines with warnings is normally not modified according to planning parameters. Instead, the planning system only suggests a supply to cover the exact demand quantity. However, you can define certain planning parameters for planning lines to be respected with certain warnings.

Carry Out Action Message Function

Carries out the action message that it are proposed for the selected line in the Requisition Worksheet window.

When you run the batch job, the program carries out the proposed actions and changes the existing replenishment plan accordingly. This could result in any of the following situations (or a combination of them):

• The program changes existing replenishment orders according to the action message proposal. This could be, for example, changing the quantity or rescheduling the due date.
• The program deletes any existing replenishment orders that carry the action message Cancel.
• The program makes new replenishment orders from proposals that carry the action message New. Note that these orders will not be posted, and you can view them in the relevant application area. You can make changes in the orders after the batch job has run.

You can define what is included in the batch job by placing a check mark in the Accept Action Message field for the relevant lines. You can also remove the check mark if you want to. The program includes only those lines that have accepted action messages in the batch job.

The batch job deletes the lines in the requisition worksheet after it has performed the action message. The other lines remain in the requisition worksheet until they are either accepted at a later date or else deleted. You can also delete the lines manually.

PS

In next post, I will describe Production Planning Process and after that all of the in flowcharts...