Release management includes Customer Schedules and Supplier Schedules. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is closely related to release management. This chapter provides a brief overview of the underlying principles of release management and EDI and how they are implemented.

Overview of Release Management
Release management is a combination of processes for managing the regular exchange of information among customers and suppliers.

Customer Schedules
Customer Schedules lets you process sales orders using a set of scheduled shipment dates and quantities rather than individual sales orders.

Supplier Schedules
Supplier schedules are cumulative, schedule-driven purchase orders with multiple line items from which releases of requirements and due dates are issued.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Releases are typically sent and received using EDI, which is an international protocol that defines means and methods for electronic transmission of documents.

Release management is a combination of processes for managing the regular exchange of information among customers and suppliers. This information is used to coordinate a customer’s manufacturing activities and demand for material with a supplier’s manufacturing activities and shipments of material.

Information is typically transmitted in the form of schedules using electronic data interchange (EDI) to streamline the process. The way information is processed depends on whether you take the point of view of the customer or the supplier:

Release management has its roots in practices developed by the automotive industry to support just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing. Just-in-time methods ensure that the required quantity of material is delivered from suppliers exactly when it is needed. By having a reliable, precisely coordinated flow of goods from suppliers, a customer can maintain an uninterrupted flow of work, while maintaining minimum levels of inventory.

Although it originated in the automotive industry, principles of release management are being applied by companies in other industries such as electronics and consumer goods. Historically, schedules in the automotive industry have been based on cumulative accounting. A total schedule quantity was determined for a period—often a year. The effect of each shipment to a customer was calculated based on a cumulative total.

However, today, many business environments use release management to ship against specific requirements. For example, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automotive industry use a schedule releasing method that does not rely on cumulative quantities.

The system fully supports noncumulative accounting requirements for customer schedules. Each scheduled order can be marked as cumulative or noncumulative. While shipments can be referenced by cumulative position, discrete pegging of shipping requirements is also supported.

Release Management Flow illustrates the basic flow of supply and demand between customers and suppliers.

Customers send information about the items they need and when they need them as planning or shipping schedules. Based on this information, a required ship schedule is created.

When material requirements planning (MRP) is run, planned work orders and purchase orders are created to fulfill the required ship schedule. The planned purchase orders can be used to create a schedule for your suppliers, communicating your requirements to them.

Customer schedules and supplier schedules represent two points of view relative to schedules. The schedules, however, have similar elements.

Shipping schedules are used to coordinate the delivery of materials in the short term, typically one to two weeks. Demand is reported in detail, with quantities specified by date or by date and time. Shipping schedules can be updated frequently to reflect changes in production line schedules.

Planning schedules are used for moderate and long-term planning of production, materials, and resources. Demand is summarized and reported in quantities aggregated by day, week, or month. Planning schedules reflect requirements from repetitive schedules, released orders, master schedule orders, and planned orders produced by material requirements planning (MRP).

The horizon of a planning schedule should be long enough to allow the supplier to plan materials and resources to support it. It should be longer than the cumulative lead time for the item being supplied.

Within a planning schedule, a customer can also define two other horizons:

The end of the planning schedule normally extends beyond both of these horizons.

Shipping and planning schedules overlap for the period covered by the shipping schedule. Within this period, the two schedules may not be exactly the same, since they obtain demand from two different sources:

The system lets you determine which schedule should take precedence when discrepancies occur.

Shipping and planning schedules are only effective when they are accurate and up-to-date. In the automotive industry, new shipping and planning schedules are typically created for each update. Creating separate releases of each schedule ensures that it is easy to distinguish the new from the old. This reduces the potential for confusion and miscommunication.