1. The Magic of MRP - Accessing and Using It To Your Advantage
Agust Bjornsson, Microsoft

2. The Magic of MRP - Accessing and Using It To Your Advantage
Attend this session and learn how to access the MRP tool, how to use it properly and tips and tricks that will help you be a successful and efficient Master Planner user. We will review common settings and clarify often misunderstood terminology and concepts. If Master Planning is not producing what you expect this is the session to help you out. 

3. Who are you? Customer Partner Microsoft Dynamics AX version? Earlier?
2009
2012
The New Dynamics AX („AX7“)
Are you in the middle of an implementation?

4. Agenda Explanation of Master Planning (MRP) results
Understanding, visualizing and applying action messages
Save your selection in list pages
Tips and tricks
Benefits:
Explanation of MRP results
Easy visualisation of the Action messages
Easy way of grouping large amounts of production orders or planned orders, for a better processing.
In this session we will go thorugh this set of features.
Action: please throw questions as we go

5. Explanation of MRP results
Sequential description of what Master Planning is doing
Translated into end user language
Two options
Directly form the client, through Explosion
Only for one order at a time
From Event viewer, for a full Master Planning run
Learn how to enable on the Dynamics AX Production Management team blog:
It is essentially functionality that explains in a human readable language what MRP is doing and how it came up with the suggestions it makes.
Why did we implement this?
Feedback from the users
Master planning results have until now been a ‘black box’ for everybody but the planning experts. However it’s useful for order processors to understand delays in delivery dates so they can make informed communications to customer, for example.
We were getting quite a few Connect cases that were either – explain what Connect is.
Not bugs, if the users would have understood what was going on
Poorly documented issues and we had to spend a lot of time trying to come up with a repro.
Our engineers, while internally testing MRP, experience strange results and it took usually long debugging time to figure out what was going on.
In practice, once you run any explosion on a transaction, you can see the sequential description MRP is doing.

6. Tracing for a full Master Planning run
Setup in Performance Monitor and view in Event Viewer

7. Explanation of the MRP results
6/3/2018
Explanation of the MRP results
© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

8. Look at the explosion log to understand why the requirement date can’t be met
Contact procurement to see if anything can be done
Procurement does magic and the items arrive earlier
Check that the required date can now be met
Confirm the date with the customer
Could be used by sales

14. Visualize and apply action messages
View interdependent relations between actions
One action often has one or more “linked” actions
Apply actions
An automated process to apply an action
Minimize material bindings in supply chain ( inventory, WIP, …)
Make Plan changes more visual, so impact on business can be analyzed before changes are applied
Getting the priority right, so Planners can focus on tasks that adds value to the business.

15. Visualize and apply action messages
Wants to change a production order, since it has an action message
Wants to make sure that this change won’t affect other orders
Looks at the action graph
Aplies the action on the production order

16. How to visualize and apply action messages
6/3/2018
How to visualize and apply action messages
© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

17. Save your selection in list pages
A simple, yet powerful way to save selection in production list pages Has to be activated in the License configuration

18. DEMO How to save selection in list pages 6/3/2018
© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

19. Tips and tricks

20. Planning Parameter Hierarchy
Master Scheduling Options
/Master planning/Area page/Setup/Master Planning parameters
Coverage Group
/Master planning/Area page/Setup/Coverage/Coverage group
Master Plans Parameters
/Master planning/Area page/Setup/Plans/Master Plan
Item Coverage rules (Per Item)
/Product information management/Common/Released products/Plan/Item Coverage
If a parameter is filled in 4), it will take priority over the parameter in 2)

21. Create the relevant coverage groups
Easy maintenance of all items in the group
Use item coverage only for exceptions
E.g. hundreds of items in the groups and only a few exceptions
If you get to many exceptions try to generalize a new group

22. Coverage code Requirement: Demand-based 6/3/2018 11:42 PM
Sale 25
Sale 15
Sale 5
Sale 10
Time
Purchase 25
Purchase 15
Purchase 5
Purchase 10
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

23. Coverage code Period: Demand based 6/3/2018 11:42 PM
Sale 25
Sale 15
Sale 5
Sale 10
Time
Purchase 40
Purchase 15
Coverage period
Coverage period
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

24. Coverage code Period: Demand based 6/3/2018 11:42 PM
Sale 25
Sale 5
Sale 15
Sale 10
Purchase 40
Purchase 15
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

25. Coverage code Min./Max.: Inventory level-based 6/3/2018 11:42 PM
Minimum
Inventory
Lead Time
Maximum
Time
(Reorder cycle)
Inventory level
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

26. Coverage code Min./Max.: Inventory level-based Maximum Qty. = 50
6/3/ :42 PM
Min./Max.: Inventory level-based
Sale 25
Sale 10
Maximum Qty. = 50
Purchase 50
Purchase 45
Sale 15
Sale 5
Minimum = 10
© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

27. Order Policies NOT the same as Coverage Code Default Order settings
Multiple - Orders are created in multiples of this quantity (i.e. cases of 24)
Minimum Order Quantity - Min quantity that can be ordered without a warning
Maximum Order Quantity - Max quantity that can be ordered without a warning
Default Order settings
Site Specific Order Settings

28. Setting the Time Fences
Automatic firming of planned orders (Create Production- and Purchase orders)
Existing planned orders are not changed when running a new master schedule - they are frozen
Futures setting for detecting and reporting delays and scheduling possible (delayed) delivery dates
Action setting to optimize inventory carrying cost by proposing changes to existing Production and Purchase orders
Capacity evaluation and planning using production route (outside the time fence Inventory lead time is used)
Explosion of BOM items to detect derived demands (both material and capacity)
Scheduling period

29. Use helpers for Master scheduling
What’s the magic number?
Use two helpers per server core minus one
E.g. Server with 8 cores = (8*2) - 1 = 15 helpers
In case of timeout or deadlocks, try to reduce the number of helpers.
This can be the case having complex BOM structures with many levels
Actual Results
With no Helpers: 11 hour average run
With 8 Helpers: Less than 1 hour average run
(AX 4 with 13 BOM levels)

30. Use the correct coverage code
Requirement Configurable items/orders (1:1) Period Non predictable inventory draw, season influenzed item, high cost items Min./Max. Predictable inventory draw, high runners or cheap items Manual Not calculated during Master Planning

31. Use actions
Planned orders will only ensure that you have enough supply
Actions will help you get an optimized supply plan and maintain approved and firmed orders
You can really save inventory carry cost
with AX2012 it’s made easy to use

32. Resources Microsoft Dynamics AX Manufacturing and Planning blog
Master Planning Wiki Site:

33. Questions?

34. Final reminders
CPE Credit Code: 53C2 Complete Surveys 34

35. Headshot And/Or Company Logo
Speaker contact info
Headshot And/Or Company Logo 35