This article explains how to create production orders in the Supply Planning module. It shows how the module can recommend production orders to users based on their needs. In “Supply Planning” the user can generate Production Orders for each SKU listed in the Supply Planning grid. The user selects the SKU they want to generate production orders for by right clicking on the SKU and selecting “Generate Production Orders”, Figure 1.
Figure 1. Generate Production Orders for the selected SKU
After selecting “Generate Production Orders”, a pop up window opens. On the right side of the pop up window the user has a list of production orders suggested by the system. The months listed are the scheduled production months for the SKU. As displayed in Figure 2 the system does not suggest any production orders to be produced in October since there is no scheduled production in October, see Figure 3.
Figure 2. Pop up widow listing the suggested production orders for each month
Figure 3. Scheduled production months for selected SKU
When you choose a month in the popup window, the system displays all the orders recommended to be part of the production order for that month, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Orders the system suggests are included in the production order for selected months.
The system's suggestions are based on the Total Lead Time for the selected SKU and the request date of the order. For example, if the Total Lead Time for the selected SKU is 150 days, then each month will only include orders where the request date is equal to or larger than the listed month+150 days. Therefore, in Figure 4, August 2024 lists only Production orders after 2025-01-01, which is 150 days after 24-08-01.
For SKU's that are MTO the system suggests customer orders. For other types of SKUs, the system uses the values in Demand Planning for the company's preferred plan type. In this example the preferred plan type is Market Forecast and as visualized in Figure 4 and 5, the system suggests the user produces the demand for the selected SKU in February and January based on the market forecast.
Figure 5. Demand for each month based on Market Forecast
On the left side in figure 6, there is a list of SKUs that are in the same batch group as the originally selected SKU. The user is able to select from this list SKUs they want to add to the production batch. When the user selects a SKU from the batch group list, the system will combine the supply plan for the originally selected SKU and the SKUs added to the production batch.
In figure 6, Produced Quantity is now 2000 as opposed to 1500 before selecting a SKU to add to the production batch and the system now suggests production orders for October, since the added SKU has a planned production in October.
Figure 6. Suggested production orders for the originally selected SKU and the SKU added to the production batch
Furthermore, we see that the system suggests that under the Production Order for August we have a customer order with a request date for 2024-12-01. Since the Total Lead Time for the SKU added to the production batch is 120 days, the Production Order for August now includes an order for the added SKU with a request date in 2024-12-01. When generating production orders, total lead time for each SKU is considered individually.
Figure 7. Adding the remainder to a SKU
In figure 7, the Produced Quantity is larger than the Order Quantity. The user has the option to select if and where they want to add this remaining quantity. This is not possible for Customer Orders. In this example we are going to add the remainder to SKU with product number 20000 and request date 2025-02-01.
The Production Order for the month is confirmed by selecting “Confirm”. After confirming the Production Order for August it is no longer available in the list. Under the subreport Production Orders / Incoming Orders under Supply Planning, all production orders for the selected SKU are listed. We can see in Figure 8 that the remainder has been added to SKU with product number 20000 and request date 2025-02-01, since No of Packs is now 550 instead of 500.
Figure 8. Subreport Production Orders / Incoming Orders
Production Orders are also available under Manufacturing -> Production Orders