Master Planning and Item Hierarchy

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Hi, my organization packages a consumer liquid product. The packaged liquid is sold in different packaging sizes and on it's own as a bulk item as well. Our item # logic is roughly; 1100 for a bulk item, 1101, 1102, 1103 etc. for the packaged sizes. Item 1100 is a Production Type 'Formula' item that has a Formula (BOM) composed of various other Production Type 'None' items. Item 1101 is also a Production Type 'Formula' item that has a BOM composed of various items including item 1100.

When Master Planning (MP) runs (overnight), we are finding that our mid-long term (2-24 months) Dynamic Plan has items such as 1100 running into a negative Accumulated On Hand. The raw material items that go into item 1100 are also under planned as a function of 1100 not having enough planned work orders associated to it.

We suspect that this is caused by the fact that MP first plans item 1100 and then 1101 etc. in alphanumerical order as they are of the same Production Type, therefore not planning the consumption demand for item 1100 created by 1101 etc. We are wondering if it's possible to get MP to recognize the item hierarchy correctly and plan accordingly. Do we need to change our 'Formula' items that are both final items in themselves and used in BOMs as well to a different Production Type (Co-Product, Planning item etc.) or is there another way to achieve the desired MP result?

We are considering the running of MP to be done in several batches so that all forecasted demand for all items are captured but would prefer if we could run it once to save time and resources.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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jac_rod 39 Moderator on at

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Master planning should actually be determining the level that the records exist in the hierarchy and then calculating by that and not the item number. You could get into a tricky situation if item 1000 exists in other BOMs at different levels...

That said, are you seeing different results in different plans? Is item 1100 represented as a phantom in the BOM, or is it an "Item" item type?

Would it be possible to include a screenshot of the net requirements form for item 1100?

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ColbyGallagher 3,666 on at

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Jacob is correct, master planning calculates in a sequence by a field called "BOM Level". The same field is used for formula items. Your finished goods are level 0, then 1, then 2, etc. You can personalize this field to your released products list page, or see it on the Engineer fast tab -> Level field. This field gets updated by the job at Inventory Management -> Periodic -> Bill of Materials -> Recalculate BOM levels.

With that in mind, your packed / bulk product structure sounds correct. 1101 / 1102 / 1103 packed products should have a BOM level of 0 if they are true finished goods, and your bulk 1100 would be a level 1. The fact that you sometimes sell 1100 outright shouldn't really matter to the BOM level field.

Now process manufacturing is a bit different than discrete manufacturing. Sometimes you do rework batches where you make 1100 from 1100. Other times you make changes to the formula lines on a batch order to make 1102 using only 1101 as your bulk, or you just post a picking list to that effect and end mark your 1100 requirements. Sometimes you blend off some 1101 into 1102 due to slightly off grade material or to empty out a partial batch. All of these actions cause the BOM level calculation job to generate wonky results. You might see that 1101 has a BOM level of 2, and 1100 has a level of 1, or everything is at the same level.

I'd suggest you check your BOM levels on the packed products and confirm they are all at a level 0, and that your bulk is at a 1. If they are not, have someone manually force them to that by keying the correct values into InventTable.BOMLevel in the AOT. Then re-run master planning for these items and see if you get the results you expect. If that fixes your problem, have someone write you a mod that excludes ProdBom records from the BOM Level recalculation job.

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Community Member on at

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Thanks for the feedback. You are both correct in that it does appear that the BOM Level being incorrect in some cases is causing the missing planned production in the MP.

In the instance of item 1100, it's a level 6 (as you note, should be a level 0 as it's a FG item) and the item that creates it (1100R) is a level 5. So of course, all of the demand created by 1100 is missing from the plan for 1100R (and all the components that make 1100R).

We went into the AOT in our test environment, reset the BOM level for 1100 to 1 (would not allow an entry of 0?) and everything subsequently ran great. When the BOM levels were recalculated, it went back to level 6 however.

Do you know if the BOM Level is a manual or automatic entry at time of item set-up? And in either case, can it be changed (I'm assuming only in the AOT?)?

If we exclude the ProdBom records from the BOM Level recalculation job as you suggest, are there other implications of doing so?

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ColbyGallagher 3,666 on at

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Do you know if the BOM Level is a manual or automatic entry at time of item set-up? And in either case, can it be changed (I'm assuming only in the AOT?)?

BOM Level is not set when you create the product. When planning runs for the product the first time, it will calculate the level, which will then get recalculated on subsequent runs.

If we exclude the ProdBom records from the BOM Level recalculation job as you suggest, are there other implications of doing so?

We've had a client doing this for a year and have not had any problems. But absence of proof is not proof of absence, so I'd say you test thoroughly and review with your team.

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Tim Schofield on at

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There's a periodic function in Inventory Management to rest BOM levels. Have a developer take a look at that. If your FG item is showing Level = 6 , what does the BOM where-used enquiry show?

In older versions of AX the first thing that master planning did was to reset the BOM levels, but I read somewhere that it doesn't do that now, and the recommendation is that you run the reset BOM level job once a week. But don't take my word for that. Please do a bit more research.

Tim

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jac_rod 39 Moderator on at

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BOM levels are also recalculated during the inventory closing process, I believe.

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