There are many different ways to access resource and scheduling data within MSW, and many different functions that you can perform using the data for a master schedule. The graphic above depicts a typical process for most schedulers.

MSW gives you user-configurable control over where the MPS schedule horizon ends and where the future window begins. MSW calculates data differently in the scheduling horizon display than in the future window. Within the scheduling horizon, the system shows the period in which MSW applies the item visual indicators. In the horizon, days are calendar days, not working days.

MRP shows the planned orders within the scheduling horizon; it is up to you as the scheduler to firm those orders.

In the MSW, you can identify resources and items that require scheduling intervention. You can locate resources that have items with negative POH for every item with supply/demand within the scheduling horizon. The system reveals a visual indicator showing that one or more items on the resource have POH issues.

Also, you can make updates to existing quantities in the MSW, the system performs POH, required capacity, and other calculations and displays changes.

ATP data is based on only firm scheduled orders.

Note the difference of Projected on hand not including planned orders, but projected available balance does include planned orders.

You can change the schedule horizon dynamically through the Preferences pull-down menu. You select Options, then Preferences, then Search to set the future and history horizon.

A long scheduling horizon can cause unnecessary scheduling effort, so keep your scheduling horizon short enough for you to easily manage the schedule.

Fields in Work Center Maintenance (14.5) and duplicated in Production Line Maintenance (18.1.1) control the schedule horizon end and the number of periods within the schedule horizon.

Specifically, you set the Horizon End field to either Day, Week, or Month, then set the number of periods for the increment in those programs. The system displays a read-only calculate date. The system calculates the date from period and period number, so if you set Horizon End to Day and Period to 5, the Calculate Date is five days starting with today. If you set Horizon End to Week and Period to 4, then the Calculate Date is four weeks from now including today.

The following topic describes the field.

The schedule horizon is not the future horizon!

MSW displays a scheduling horizon within the Schedule Grid; this is not a future horizon. The scheduling horizon that displays includes both a future horizon and a history horizon, which you define through the Preferences window in the workbench. When the system retrieves records based on your search criteria, it retrieves all transactional, demand and supply records for item with dates that also match the History and Future Horizon values that you set in Preferences.

MSW displays visual status indicators to direct your attention to potential capacity and item shortage issues.

The Resource Navigator Panel highlights each resource with a POH shortage icon when one or more items associated with the resource have a POH shortage within the resources's defined scheduling horizon.

Shortage warning status applies to required capacity (the load), available capacity, part number, scheduled quantity, and projected on-hand (POH) quantity.

Shortage warning status indicators can display as low warning status (yellow shading), which typically applies to non-critical potential shortages; for example, when the quantity on hand does not meet safety stock requirements.

High warning status (red shading) indicates a potentially critical capacity or item shortage problem; for example, when the projected on hand quantity is less than zero. The following table summarizes visual indicators.

Question: Why is there a POH shortage of 25 parts?

Use the information in the Supply/Demand Grid to view the item’s total demand and total supply data over a period of time. Total demand is from sales, DRP, forecast, seasonal demand, or dependent demand. Total supply is from planned, firm, or released production orders.

You can select the items with issues, then drill down to the Demand Details panel; for example, to view demand records by ascending due dates. You can then scroll up or down to see additional demand records within the history horizon or future demand. This helps you focus on a specific demand record to correct the issue.

Question: What are other business scenarios that require this panel?

Supply/Demand panel provides context to the item you are scheduling: projected available balance, POH, and supply.

When the Schedule Grid displays the scheduled quantity for an item, the Supply/Demand Grid displays the remaining open quantity due for the item. When the resource selected is a production line or work center, the Supply/Demand Grid displays the quantity and due date per production order.

The Supply/Demand Panel provides context to the item you are scheduling:

Business Scenario: Several items display visual indicators, but there are limits in the short term to change the master schedule - Which items should you address first?

First, you can drill down to supply/demand panel to find the demand. In the example, you can see that the demand is coming from the customer.

Within MSW, you can update status, as well as release, create, or close orders, while considering all demand sources, from the single workbench.

For demand sources:

Business Scenario: Several items display visual indicators, but there are limits in the short term to change the master schedule - Which items do I address drill down into item details to determine the shortage is partly caused by forecast demand.

You can find item details in the Item Master or Item Planning panels. You can modify item details to include information from any field in the Item Master Maintenance.

Question: What if you calculate item demand, excluding forecast demand?

Solution Approach: Ability to exclude forecast demand as a demand source to suppress shortage alerts when:

For MSW to include forecast demand, you must set the Include Forecast Demand option to Yes in the MSW Display Preferences window. When you do, the system displays the net balance of current forecast demand from QAD EE for the selected item. Master production scheduling and MRP use the net forecast and abnormal sales order demand to calculate total demand.

 

The resource ASSY-01 indicates a POH shortage. Now, you will attempt to determine the reason for the POH shortage.

The resource ASSY-01 indicates a POH shortage. Now, you will determine the items and reasons for their shortages.

The resource ASSY-01 indicates a POH shortage. Now, you will determine the items and reasons for their shortages.

In the prior scenario, the item 02305 displayed a POH shortage based on forecast demand. Modify your user preferences to exclude forecast demand from the POH calculation, thus ensuring you are only alerted of scheduling issues based on actual, not forecasted, customer demand.

When cells are highlighted red, you can see that the projected on-hand quantity is negative within a firm scheduling period.

Question: Why is there a POH shortage of 25 parts?

Answer: You have a demand of 25, but even though you have a planned receipt, planned orders do not display in the Schedule Grid.

Use the information in the Supply/Demand Grid to view the item’s total demand and total supply data over a period of time. Total demand is from sales, DRP, forecast, seasonal demand, or dependent demand. Total supply is from planned, firm, or released production orders.

A firm planned order has a production order bill and a routing with scheduled operations.

Question: Did the system create a new order or firm an existing order?

Solution: Update a production order quantity using one of the three UI/methods:

Even though MRP generates planned orders, balancing supply and demand, in some cases, you may need to manually adjust the production order quantity. You can use MSW to do this. You can modify quantities directly in the Schedule Grid in any horizon period.

When you make a quantity change against a production order, the quantity change applies to the entire order, not just a specific operation. For example, if you change the quantity on work center A for operation 10, MSW applies the quantity change to the order and, subsequently, all operations.

If you change the order quantity to a quantity less than the quantity completed, the changes display in the Supply/Demand Grid. The open quantity is zero when the order quantity is equal to or less than the quantity completed.

Solution Approach: Create a production order quantity using one of the two UI/methods highlighted below

Business need: Reduce manual effort to create a master and production schedule.

In many businesses, MRP output is the starting point for master production scheduling. You can use the auto-firm function to quickly adjust orders and expedite your scheduling tasks. For discrete and repetitive orders, you no longer need to approve planned production orders to change the status to F. Auto-firming is based on the order due date.

You cannot auto-firm these item types:

You can run the auto-firm process daily in batch mode to avoid missing orders that require this status change.

You can auto-firm orders using programs that are external to the workbenches. The programs firm planned orders for your work centers and production lines for a specific horizon or a range of dates. The program can run in batch mode nightly.

What is Auto-firm?

When is it applicable to use?

What to decide:

For a planned work order approval, the answer is Yes. For a planned repetitive schedule approval, the answer is No.

Starting Point: A production schedule with firm orders MRP generated future planned orders.

Event 1: Auto-firm process runs today.

Event 2: new planned order created by MRP today.

Event 3: Auto-firm process runs again today.

Event 4: Auto-firm process runs each day after today.

You must set Auto Firm to Yes in both Production Line Maintenance and Work Center Maintenance if you auto-firm for work center resources. If Auto Firm is set to No in these programs, the system will not firm any planned orders. You can see the Auto Firm field status and the date of the last auto-firm in work center and production line browses in QAD EE.

An item must be classified as discrete or repetitive scheduled.

Production orders are all orders associated with production-—production lines, work centers, or other production areas—including discrete production orders, repetitive orders, scheduled orders, cumulative orders, and so on.

In the Resource navigator, when you select an item from a repetitive order, MSW displays all production lines defined for the item. If you select an item from a discrete order, MSW displays all work centers for the operation, including alternate routings.

In Item Planning Maintenance, the Pur/Man Code defines the item type:

Production order type determined when order is firmed.

The following table shows you the Pur/Mfg codes for production orders and order types.d.

In Item Master Maintenance within QAD EA, you can set the Replenishment Method field.

 

Business Scenario: An item is typically defined as an L type, repetitive scheduled order, but customer requests special handling, so schedule the item using discrete processing.

Question: What are the advantages to managing an order discretely?

The item 02303 indicates a POH shortage. You will increase the current scheduled quantity to satisfy the demand requirement by updating the schedule directly on the MSW Schedule Grid.

 

The item 02308 indicates a POH shortage. Now, you will firm the MRP planned order to resolve the demand requirement. Use the Production Order Maintenance tab to review and firm the MRP planned order.

Item 02305 displays a POH shortage based on forecast demand. Move in the scheduled production order due date. Use Production Order Maintenance to review and firm the MRP planned order.

Available capacity information:

Question: How does past due required capacity impact these calculations?

The Capacity panel includes required capacity and capacity information for the selected resource on each day of the schedule horizon, starting with the current day.

In the Capacity Grid, you can optionally display the daily delta of required and planned capacity in the MSW. You can set the Consume Prior Remaining Capacity field in the Display tab of the User Preferences window so that the capacity row displays.

Scheduled quantity is the sum of all production order open quantity per production order due date.

Capacity calculations start from the current system date and include the daily capacity. If the period available capacity results in a negative value, the system attempts to consume the excess capacity available from previous days and continues the consumption until either the period available capacity is zero or all previous days’ excess capacity is consumed.

This calculation runs from the system date until the last day of the schedule horizon. When past due, the period available capacity is zero minus the past due required capacity.

Required Capacity is the sum of all production order required capacity per production order due date.

Calculated required capacity for each order:

In the MSW, shortage warning status applies to both required capacity and available capacity.

When you make updates to existing quantities in the Schedule Grid, the system performs required capacity calculations and displays changes.

You can specify whether capacity is consumed by future required capacity or not by setting the Consume Prior Remaining Capacity field in the Display Window of User Preferences. Color coding extends beyond the firm scheduling horizon for visibility of capacity shortages. When you set the field to Yes, the cell displays with yellow shading when the system uses available capacity from prior days to satisfy the required capacity. It displays with red shading when there is not enough available capacity on or in days prior to the required capacity date.

Question: What is the limitation of this calculation?

Remaining capacity calculation:

Questions: What is the primary assumption this calculation method uses? What are the benefits / applications of this calculation?

The prior Consumption method determines if you have enough capacity to achieve the due dates defined per the master schedule. This method is ideal when looking at a long-term schedule.

The daily net method determines if you have enough capacity on a daily basis to complete my master schedule. This method is ideal to use when looking at short-term schedule, such as a week.

Question: When is each method most applicable?

Currently, you can only run one method at a time; however, you can switch methods.

Business Scenario: Your standard capacity is eight hours per day, Monday through Friday. You need to schedule a PM or Downtime to remove capacity on Friday. You are behind schedule and wish to simulate the impact of adding additional capacity for Saturday Assume that you cannot move and production order due dates.

Occasionally, exceptions such as overtime or machine downtime cause changes in productivity and capacity for various shifts. When you set up calendars in Calendar Maintenance, you specify a reference, such as downtime, and the number of hours per day affected. This information displays in the Calendar Exception Maintenance grid within MSW/PSW. Negative numbers can display for downtime or holidays. Holidays are days when no production is scheduled. Holidays differ from site to site.

Business Need: Visibility of capacity trends over a period of weeks or months.

In the past, you could use reports and inquiries to view capacity trends that are shown in the slide above

Required capacity calculations let you see what your capacity trends are over given periods of time. You can determine if your remaining capacity is trending down or trending up. This would be used to determine if you need an extra shift or more resources.

When you select the resource, the system displays capacity in weekly buckets for the selected resource. You can also view the capacity for all resources in the list so that you see that resource load is uniform across all resources.

Question: What decisions can be made from this summary view?

The working days and capacity for a resource, including calendar exceptions, come from different sources depending on the resource type.

Capacity for a work center first looks at calendar (no1 shown above) then site calendar (no. 2), and so on.

The capacity for production lines comes from the shift calendar.

When you set up an exception record (shift exception) for a production line, that record overrides all other records. Note that currently the site holiday record overrides all other records.

Use Calendar Maintenance (36.2.5) to specify normal work days and normal work hours for each site and its work centers. You create shop calendars for manufacturing using Calendar Maintenance, but you use Customer Calendar Maintenance (7.3.1) to create customer calendars. At least one calendar must exist.

You can create unique shop calendars by specifying some fields while leaving others blank. A default shop calendar has a blank site, work center, and machine. The system searches for a shop calendar in the following order:

If shift patterns vary because of overtime, increased or reduced shifts, or plant shutdowns, enter exception hours. Set up exceptions for a date range by specifying the number of hours that are added to or subtracted from normal work hours.

Shop calendars are typically defined in this order:

In this exercise, you review capacity information for the following two weeks to determine your capacity issues and opportunities. You verify your user preferences are set using the desired capacity calculation method, and use the daily net method.

You are over capacity for tomorrow. You should increase capacity by creating a calendar exception.

In this exercise, you compare and contrast the differences between the two capacity calculation methods: Consume Prior Days Remaining Capacity and Daily Net Capacity.

You wish to review where you have capacity shortages where remaining capacity is negative even after prior remaining capacity is considered to start a production order early. You decide to use the Prior Consume Remaining Capacity method.

Demand is lumpy for your forecasted items, so you decide to smooth production for forecasted items and see how the severity of your capacity shortages are reduced.

You wish to review where you have capacity shortages across all your resources in a single view. You decide to run a search for multiple resources, then use the Daily Net Capacity method.

You have now completed the basic lessons to visualize and correct item shortages and monitor resource capacity. To reinforce your new workbench skills, you decide to balance capacity to the production schedule through Sunday of next week.

The following shows an example of your starting point.

The following shows an example ending point.

This final MSW exercise takes you through a complete business scenario of a repetitive scheduled item and a scenario for a discrete scheduled item, starting with data setup and ending with saving your completed scheduling resolutions. The goal is for you to solidify your understanding of the following:

You set up data in QAD EE programs first.