Intershop planning

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Version 2.1. Intershop planning

Management of production order queue

Coordinated fulfillment of production processes at intershop level is ensured by Production schedule. It is a calendar schedule of production stage completion. You can generate a production schedule within the Manufacturing – Intershop management – Production schedule workplace.

Production schedule is created by a chief dispatcher. It allows you to do the following:

• Estimate if received production orders are fulfillable by the demand date.
• Optimize floating asset volume to supply the enterprise with resources used in production by purchasing them closer to consumption dates.
• Generate production programs for particular departments.
• Control production progress.
• Manage changes and variances in production plans in a quick manner.
• Optimize demand for human resources.

Functionality of the chief dispatcher workplace is displayed in the diagram:

The schedule is created based on the Production order document queue. The order position in the queue does not depend on order parameters (document number and date, product kind, release volume, demand date, etc.).

The order queue has three generation levels:

• Order priority groups (priority is defined in the Priority field of the Production order documents).
• Within a priority group, orders are grouped by the department specified in production orders, in the Dispatcher department field. Priorities of departments are specified in list Manufacturing – Settings and catalogs – Intershop management – Dispatcher department priorities.
• Within generated groups, priority of an order is determined by its position. The higher the order is in the group list, the higher priority it has. Click  (Move in the order queue) to change the order position in the group. You can change the order position manually only within its group.

When you create an order, it is placed at the end of the queue in its priority group. All production orders with the For production status are added to the queue. Click  (Update) to update the list of orders in the queue. Orders are displayed in the list based on set filters by priority and dispatcher department (by parameters according to which queue groups are generated).

The queue of production orders is strict. If an order is replanned, other orders with a lower priority might lose their relevance (the application controls that automatically) and will need to be replanned. The state of orders awaiting placement in the schedule is displayed as a blue hyperlink Planning is required or Replanning is required. You can calculate the schedule both for each order individually and for the order list by clicking (Plan queue by). The list includes orders from the last planned to the arbitrarily selected order in the queue. If you generate a non-sequential production schedule, it is not locked by the application, but in this case, it is not guaranteed that the schedule will be fulfillable for all orders. In some cases, when you place orders with high priority in the production schedule, they can cut off resources required for fulfillment of low-priority orders planned previously.

In the Production schedule workplace, in the Production orders group, you can go from a specific production order to linked order fulfillment documents using the context menu.

Generating production schedule

Planning functionality is available in the Order planning window. To start calculation, click Generate product release schedule. To create estimation schedules and perform situation analysis, you can select additional parameters for production schedule calculation:

• Ignore availability restrictions of materials – availability of materials and their delivery period will be ignored. It is supposed that an order will be supplied with materials in necessary volume and by a desired date.
• Use availability reserve – when calculating, the restriction (specified by the Availability reserve parameter) to use availability reserves of work center kinds while planning will be removed if they are not being used by previous orders.
• Ignore availability restrictions of work center kinds – work center kind availability according to the work schedule will be ignored.
• To empty plant – the current load of work center kinds by already placed orders will be ignored. This option allows you to estimate if the order can be fulfilled using enterprise production capacity by the desired date.

You can use each parameter both individually and with others.

To calculate the schedule based on the current equipment load, ignore all above mentioned additional parameters, except for Use availability reserve. Up-to-date resource availability for an order being planned is defined by the following factors:

• Specified availability of work center kinds.
• Work center availability restrictions due to repair activities.
• Standard restriction of work center kind availability within the planning interval (the Availability reserve parameter for work center kinds).
• Work center kind availability restriction due to previously placed (higher priority) production orders.
• Dates of supplying with materials and semi-finished products.
• Demand fulfillment parameters used for product items. In the Configure material transfer to production parameters, the By production order receipt basis is used by default. If a product item can be supplied regardless of the production schedule, the By order of transfer to production value is used as a basis. Products with such setting specified for the department is not analyzed for availability when generating a production schedule. It means that such resources are available for production orders without limits at any time. Supply methods used in different departments for the same product might differ.
• Existing material resource delivery and consumption schedules.

When generating and dispatching the production schedule, availability of materials to be supplied is estimated by the guaranteed shipment period.

In demand fulfillment methods (items of the Demand fulfillment methods list), on the Planning parameters tab, two different indicators are specified:

• Delivery period (Production period, etc.) – parameter setting a standard duration of purchase, production, etc.
• Guaranteed shipment period – parameter used for calculating product item supply date when accepting orders for supply. It is set to a date exceeding the order fulfillment date. For example, a guaranteed delivery period can be set based on order frequency. Suppose a purchase order is fulfilled within 10 days, but orders are placed only once a month. In that case, the delivery period is 10 days and the guaranteed delivery period is 1 month and 10 days.

A production order is to be replanned only if the supply period by a delivery date is expired. Thus, within the period from the start date of the guaranteed period to the earliest delivery date, supply procedures are to be started to comply with the production schedule.

The difference between the estimated fulfillment period and the guaranteed shipment period should be reasonable. If the guaranteed period is overestimated, it might lead to unreasonable increase of product release process duration.

When planning, each production order line is considered separately. When you place an order in the production schedule for the first time, it is defined for each line if the order is fulfillable by the specified demand date. If the product cannot be produced by the demand date, the expected release date is calculated. The chief dispatcher needs to make a decision on further steps:

• Approve the demand date change and make adjustments to the production order.
• Change calculation parameters by putting supply with missing resources outside the infobase.
• Use alternative kinds of work centers to fulfill the production process.
• Use alternative kinds of work centers to fulfill production orders planned before.
• Use analogs of materials that cannot be supplied.
• Revise production order priorities to free up limited resources.

In the diagram, you can see the possible operation algorithm used by a chief dispatcher to balance the schedule by capacity and materials:

When calculating the schedule, specify demand for product resources (materials, semi-finished products, and third party works) at the beginning of the resource consumption stage (considering preliminary stage buffer).

The stage is placed in one of intervals in which there is a time resource for loaded work center kinds. If you specify more than one loaded work center kind for the stage, you can place the stage in the interval only if there are enough available resources for all loaded work center kinds. Availability of alternative work center kinds is ignored when calculating the schedule automatically. If there is no data on loaded work centers for the stage (the Use work center kinds check box is cleared), specify only its fulfillment time placed in the schedule from the possible fulfillment start date or to the desired fulfillment date.

A stage placement algorithm when generating a production schedule is defined by the Release placement parameter of a production order line:

• To top – all stages are placed in a way that ensures the soonest product release. Stages are arranged from the first to the final stage.
• To finish – all stages are placed in a way that ensures product release right on time. Stages are arranged from the final to the first stage. If the calculated production date is earlier than the current planning date (is in the past), the application tries to plan production from the Start no earlier than date. In that case, the calculated production end date might be later than the set demand date. Later, you need to make a decision: accept the suggested option or undertake production schedule diagnostics to ensure the initially set production date.

Material resource availability is defined for the selected interval. The application searches for possible options until it finds a planning interval within which all required resources are available. A stage is placed in this interval. The same algorithm is used for next production process stages until the entire order is placed in the schedule.

If there are available resources, a stage can be placed in the current planning interval relative to the schedule generation date. This option is available if the following conditions are met:

• The Start not earlier than date in the order line is the same as the current date or less.
• In the work center schedule, there are some time availability zones in which operation start time is later than the current planning time. You can place a stage only in time zones that have not been started yet. For example, for a work center whose work schedule includes two time periods during the day: from 8:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 18:00, you can place a stage that can be fulfilled in the time period from 13:00 to 18:00 earlier than 13:00. On the other hand, if a work center has a continuous workday (from 8:00 to 18:00) and it has already started, you cannot plan load in the morning for the time left before the end of the workday.

This approach allows you to specify management time periods within the planning interval (for example, for prompt adjustment of jobs if equipment is used in shifts).

Stages are placed in available time of loaded work center kinds within the planning interval in the same way as different-sized glasses are filled. The glass size displays work center kind availability within a specific planning interval. Such interpretation shows that a loaded work center kind has no usage start and end time within the interval and any work schedule when you generate the production schedule. There is only available work time being spent, which is specified for a work center kind in each planning interval.

Stages that last longer than the planning interval specified for the department are placed in the schedule considering if the stage specified in the BOR stage should be performed continuously. If a stage fulfillment process should be continuous, you can place stages only in adjacent planning intervals. Availability of work centers within the interval should be set in a way to ensure continuous stage placement. There should not be part-time employment of used work center kinds in inner intervals of such a chain. Based on this requirement, it is recommended that you plan orders with long continuous stages first.

The production schedule generated for the order line in the Order planning workplace is shown as a Gantt chart.

The stage list is shown in the hierarchy of semi-finished products for the production of which they are fulfilled. The following icons show line kinds and their fulfillment states:

•  – Semi-finished products manufactured in the process.
•  – Stages placed in the production schedule.
•  – Stages accepted for fulfillment (they have the generated Route sheet documents).

A color range displays a stage fulfillment state. Initially, you can see only the top level. When you open stages, you can see information about semi-finished products that should be manufactured before the stage start. Semi-finished products are shown by descending availability date. A semi-finished product that has the latest manufacturing deadline is at the top. Its manufacturing duration is the most crucial for the next stage start.

In the diagram, you can see that semi-finished product "RBT.100.02 Bracket" has critical production duration.

A critical path determines the longest stage sequence. Stages and semi-finished products to be manufactured in these stages on the critical path are in bold type.

If you use a critical path method, you can manage fulfillment periods of manufacturing processes and optimize fulfillment time of the most important stages (using tools of production schedule diagnostics) with higher efficiency.

Production schedule calculation results are presented with sequential information disclosure by stages. This insures the best visualization and allows you to significantly simplify operations with order BOM nested deeply.

A similar approach is used to display information on stages during production schedule diagnostics.

You can print the generated production schedule as a Gantt chart by clicking  (Print production schedule).

To analyze work center load generated when creating a production schedule, use the Load of work center kinds report.

With the Production schedule report, you can:

• Receive summary data on the production schedule in compact form.
• View the results of schedule generation by departments by orders, stages, and planned issues.
• Decide if it is necessary to replan.

To see a Gantt chart, click an order line to go to the Order planning workplace.

You can generate a report for a period by release (launch) and break it down into any intervals in two options:

• Schedule of production by orders.
• Production schedule.

You can see data on schedule fulfillment in the Fact field. Variances are highlighted.

Use the Execution state context report for each production order to do the following:

• Control the production schedule fulfillment state as of the current date against an order by stages and planned department releases.
• Analyze variances from the schedule against a production order and a sales order (in case of pegging) by departments, stages, and planned releases.

You can call the report from the Production order document list for the selected order or directly from the order form.

If an order is fully fulfilled, you will see the message informing you that the Order is fulfilled when calling the report.

In the Hide completed mode, stages by completed semi-finished products are not shown. You can see produced semi-finished products of a bottom level before the product in which they are included is manufactured.

In the report, you can distinguish a production state of semi-finished products by color intensity:

• Bright – not produced semi-finished products.
• Average brightness – produced semi-finished products but included in the product that has not been manufactured yet.
• Pale – produced semi-finished products that are included in the manufactured product.

If there is a variance from the schedule, the schedule date is highlighted in red.

In the Consider release invoice mode, data in the Release date column is filled in only if there is a release invoice. Release date is not filled in until redistribution is finished.

Production schedule diagnostics

The schedule calculation result for an order line is displayed as a Gantt chart. It shows stage placement in planning intervals. Calculation results can be not clear for you. It is necessary to understand why the schedule is generated in this particular way.

To analyze stage placement, use the tool of stage resource diagnostics. We recommend that you analyze stages placed in a way that there is a time gap between them and previous stages. In the schedule, such stages are highlighted in blue for clarity. You should analyze such places in reverse order, i.e. from the final stage of product release to the first stages of components production.

If you double-click the stage, the Production schedule diagnostics window appears. Here you can see limitations that influenced the stage placement.

In the interval where the stage is placed, two parameters are displayed in the numeric expression for material resources by each product item:

• Available stock after stage placement (top position).
• Quantity used by the selected stage.

For products, state of material availability in planning intervals preceding the interval being analyzed is marked with a color.

The following time availability parameters of work center kinds are specified in the stage placement interval:

• Free availability reserve after stage placement (top position).
• Time of occupancy with stages of higher priority planned earlier (the second from the top).
• Time for the selected stage (bottom position).

The infinity symbol is shown for work center kinds that have no limits on availability.

For intervals standing before the interval where the stage is placed, availability is marked with a color and two first parameters are specified in the numeric expression. You can see a full legend of displayed parameters in the lower part of the window.

Both a restriction for one resource and a combination of restrictions might be a reason for delayed fulfillment of the stage being analyzed. Schedule optimization shall be started with the most critical restriction (defined individually for specific production).

When analyzing occupancy of a work center kind, you can change availability parameters in a separate window:

• Select another equipment from alternative work center kinds specified in the bill of resources (you can see additional information useful for choice in the Occupancy of the work center kind window opened via the context menu) – both for the selected production process and orders planned earlier.
• Extend work center kind availability by adjusting the schedule of work centers this kind includes (the Availability of work centers document is opened).

It allows you to remove the restriction on availability of manufacturing capacities.

Let's have a look at an example.

In the diagram, you can see that the diagnosable stage cannot be placed on Friday (Fri) since there is no available time in the interval.

To complete the diagnosable stage as soon as possible, you shall make Friday available (for example, by changing the priority of orders whose stages have already been placed in the schedule on Friday).

The stage placed on Friday is restricted to being placed earlier in the schedule by the end time of the previous stage, which falls on Thursday (Thu).

After the previous stage will be moved to an earlier period, the diagnosable stage will have several restrictions on Wednesday (not supplied material 1, set fulfillment period of the previous stage, limited time availability of the required work center kind).

Production schedule dispatching

The chief dispatcher controls production schedule fulfillment in the Manufacturing – Intershop management – Production schedule workplace:

• Determines a production order queue.
• Generates a production schedule.
• Keeps the production schedule up-to-date by replanning.
• Plans stages to replenish defective semi-finished products or reduces the production volume by their quantity.

Replanning means regenerating the existing production schedule for specific orders considering the current situation and changed source data.

There are the following reasons for replanning:

• External:
  • Order priority change
  • New urgent sales orders
• Internal:
  • Decrease in work center availability (failure due to a defect)
  • Resource availability change (delay in material delivery)
  • Critical delay in fulfillment of some stages, etc.

Schedule replanning can be initiated by the local dispatcher who failed to perform the received production jobs on time and marked variances in stage fulfillment deadlines.

The chief dispatcher analyzes registered variances from the schedule and determines stages that should be replanned. The capability to replan the stage depends on the state of the created Route sheet documents:

• If the Route sheet documents are put into operation (have the For completion status or higher), the stage cannot be replanned and results achieved within this stage are considered in further calculations.
• If all Route sheet documents for the stage are created but not put into operation (have the Created status), the stage is replanned automatically and route sheets created for it are assigned the Canceled status. It allows you to save the stage history. You need to create new route sheets for production.
• Stages without the created Route sheet documents should be replanned.

Completion date set manually by a local dispatcher in route sheets is also considered. Next stages can be replanned based on it. If all route sheets for the stage are completed ahead of schedule, you can replan next stages by setting earlier start dates for them.

Considering the above-mentioned information, it makes no sense to generate route sheets for a long time ahead of the current date and accept them for production too far in advance (for example, when creating a backlog of work orders for a shop). The need to fulfill them is more likely to be revised due to changes in the production schedule. The optimal period to generate route sheets is 1–5 days from the current date.

Recording of the actual route sheet completion in the infobase is not crucial for the replanning task. Thus, you do not need to quickly specify large volumes of feedback data for replanning.

In the Stages group, the actual start date is displayed for a started stage instead of the planned start date. After the stage is finished, the actual end date is displayed instead of the planned one.

General procedure of generating a new production schedule while replanning is similar to the previously described procedure of generating a production schedule.

Closing production orders

The following operations are available in production:

• Production decrease by orders in progress.
• Closure of production orders accepted for fulfillment.
• Production order adjustment.

All operations are performed individually for each production order line.

You can decrease production volume for orders being fulfilled within the Production decrease against order workplace. It is available:

• Within the Manufacturing – Intershop management – Production schedule workplace. Select a production order line, and then click More actions – Decrease production.
• In the production order form on the Products tab by clicking Decrease production.

Data tree is a key way used to display order fulfillment state. The data tree contains information on manufactured products, semi-finished products produced within the process, and production stages. Order fulfillment is defined by registered route sheets and material transfer references.  Fulfilled stages, released semi-finished products, and stages awaiting fulfillment are highlighted. A completion state (the Completed column) is estimated in quantitative and relative values.

To set decrease parameters, use the Production decrease against order form by clicking Decrease production.

Decrease is made from top to bottom by redistributions that provide release of semi-finished products that are manufactured in the process. The following decrease scenarios (methods) are available:

• Cancel unstarted – release of all semi-finished products used to manufacture some products with unstarted manufacturing processes will be canceled.
• Manufacture other quantity – you can choose any quantity within a certain range: its lower bound is defined by product volume whose production has already been started, and the upper bound is equal to product quantity specified in the production order line.
• Stop production – only semi-finished products which manufacturing process has already been started at the time of the decision to decrease production will be released.

A stage-by-stage decrease in manufacturing processes is not available.

The required quantity and resulting surplus of semi-finished products are calculated automatically for changed product quantity considering the multiplier and the minimum release batch of each item. You can change the planned quantity of semi-finished products manufactured in the process.

Use the "without stages" display mode for bills of resources containing many redistributions.

Based on the production decrease results, the quantity of products specified in the production order line changes automatically as follows:

• Total quantity of actually manufactured products is specified in case of partial decrease. Semi-finished products manufactured but not used in the release due to its decrease do not affect this quantity.
• Unit is specified in case of refusal to release final products only if there are separate semi-finished products received to a warehouse.

If you totally decrease production, a production order line will not be fulfilled later. Actually manufactured semi-finished products will be received to a warehouse and can be used as buffer stock. Such semi-finished products are specified (in addition to product items) on the Products tab in a BOM of production order lines.

As a result of the production decrease, parameters of BOMs of production order lines are changed, resulting in the need to recalculate the production schedule (orders will have the Replanning is required state in the Production schedule workplace).

Note that you can adjust BOMs of production order lines during their fulfillment (the For production status) only for stages which are not started yet (route sheets are not registered and/or there are no material transfer references).

A production order is fulfilled after setting the Closed status. You can also control the completeness of order documents:

• Unfulfilled stages of a production schedule.
• Unregistered product release references.

You can control it by selecting Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Manufacturing – Manufacturing – Execution control while closing production orders.

Version 2.2. Intershop planning

Production planning methods

The following production planning methods are available (you can select one of them in Master data and settings –Master data and sections –Manufacturing – Production management method):

• Without planning production schedule.
• Planning by material resources (MRP I).
• Planning by material and production resources (MRP II)

For each option, you should register demand for production using production orders and control production using stages. Each option has a different level of stage planning details and fulfillment registration.

Without planning production schedule

This is the simplest production management option. Specify the sequence and dates of stage completion manually in the Manufacturing – Intershop management – Stage dispatching workplace. You cannot plan stage completion time. You can only specify total stage duration in the Production stage documents. The completion is confirmed and used resources are specified for a stage directly.

Planning by material resources (MRP I)

Stage completion dates are calculated only considering the production supply with material resources. You cannot specify imported work center kinds in bills of resources for stages. The by work center kind availability planning option is not available in the Production stage documents.

Planning by material and production resources (MRP II)

Stage completion dates are calculated considering the production supply with material resources and availability of manufacturing resources. This option is set by default when migrating to Production management, version 2.2. This application usage option provides you with the richest functionality.

Production stage dispatching

To dispatch registered production stages, use the Manufacturing – Intershop management – Stage dispatching workplace. Within the workplace, you can do the following:

• Supply stages with materials – select the option of supplying the stage with materials in the Production stage documents. Click Supply state to open the standard supply control form.
• Replan an order – to partially calculate the production schedule for the selected production order, click Actions – Plan the order.
• Replan stages – to partially calculate the production schedule only for the selected stages, click Actions – Plan selected stages.
• Pass stages for completion – to pass stages with the Generated status for completion and assign the For completion status to them, click Actions – Pass for completion.
• View stage position in the schedule – in the  field, you can see by displayed icons how the stage influences product manufacturing process fulfillment:
  •  On critical path – the stage is on critical path, it is very important to meet its completion deadline.
  •  Delays the order – stages whose calculated position in the production schedule delays the order completion. You need to start order completion optimization from such stages.
• Complete stages – to start completion of orders with the For completion status and assign the Started status to them, click Actions – Mark completion as started. To mark stages as completed (assign the Completed status), click Actions – Mark as completed. The capability to register stage completion start and end within this workplace is convenient when one infobase user has responsibilities of both chief and local dispatchers.

Additionally to a status, a fulfillment state is specified for a stage. The following values of the State field are available (the combination of Stage status and Completion state):

• Being generated, Requires clarification – some data is missing to create the Production stage documents correctly. Specify the missing data manually.
• Generated – the stage is filled in completely, it can be supplied with materials and planned in the schedule, but some previous stages are not completed.
• Generated, Ready for fulfillment – the stage is generated, and there are no incomplete previous stages.
• Ready for fulfillment, Awaiting predecessors – the stage is passed for completion, but some preceding stages are not completed.
• Ready for fulfillment, Awaiting start – the stage is passed for completion, preceding stages are completed, but stage completion is not marked as started.
• Started, Awaiting completion – the stage is being completed.
• Completed – the stage is completed.

The Pick stages with status stage filter management form is located on the right side of the screen. It allows you to filter stages using joint conditions from two groups (between groups – by the Logical AND rule):

• The first condition group (inside the group – by the Logical OR rule):
  • Clarification is required – stages with filling errors.
  • Ready for fulfillment – stages with the Generated status which can be started (materials are supplied are all previous stages are fulfilled).
  • Awaiting predecessors – stages with the For completion status which cannot be started since there are unfinished previous stages.
  •  Awaiting start – stages with the For completion status awaiting start.
  • Awaiting completion – stages with the Started status awaiting completion.
  • Completed – completed stages.
• The second condition group (inside the group – by the Logical AND rule):
  • Planning is required – the schedule is not calculated or not relevant anymore. New calculation of the production schedule is required.
  • Supply is required – a supply method is specified not for all materials, manufacturing of semi-finished products is not planned, and materials are not transferred to production (the Ship action is not set).
  • Overdue – the stage is not completed on time.
  •  On critical path – the stage is on the critical path.
  •  Delays the order – the stage delays order fulfillment in regard to the calculated production schedule.

For example, to filter stages which are on the critical path and awaiting fulfillment of their predecessors, set filter by Awaiting predecessors in the first group and select On critical path in the second group.

You can pick related stages for the selected stage (click Show):

• Stage and all adjacent stages – the selected stage and stages that are before or right after it in the production chain are shown.
• Stage and all its predecessors – the selected stage and stages that should be fulfilled before it in the production chain.
• Stage and all its successors – the selected stage and stages that should be fulfilled after it in the production chain.
• All stages – allows you to cancel the filter by related stages.

You can accept production stages for completion and mark their completion in the Manufacturing – Shop management – Execute production stages workplace. The following operations are available for the selected production stages by clicking Actions:

•  Mark completion as started.
•  Mark as completed.
•  Register employee output.

The current state of production stages is displayed in the tabular section.

You may also need to reflect changes in the released products during production dispatching.

You can select the assignment specified in the production order for side release products and semi-finished products in the Production stage documents on the Finished products tab.

The assignment for any product being released is specified without restrictions by release volume set in the production order. For example, 10 product units are planned to be released for a specific assignment under a production order. Stages to release this product volume were registered. Besides this quantity, you can register an additional product quantity for the same assignment (for example, 2 more units).

Generating production schedule

Production order positioning and usage of Production stage documents determine principles of production schedule generation:

• All items of one order have the same priority.
• Optimal fulfillment is provided for the whole order rather than specific product lines.
• Stages are placed in the schedule considering the duration before the release and resource intensity to reduce the risk of order delay in case of variances.
• Model in which the influence of resource limitations can be fully or partially excluded is generated along with schedule calculation considering resource limitations. It allows you to assess the restriction influence on product release time.
• You can calculate a schedule for separate stages that are not relevant anymore.

A production schedule represents a set of production stages placed according to the planned completion time. The schedule is calculated by planning intervals with reduced availability of loaded work center kinds.

You can place stages with two or more work center kinds in several planning intervals. In the description of bill of resources stages (on the Work center kinds tab) and in the Production stage documents, the Load several work center kinds attribute determines how to organize work of several loaded work center kinds. You can use the following options:

• Simultaneously – it is considered that all specified work center kinds operate strictly at the same time (matching operating time). For example, a press and a press mold are used simultaneously in the manufacture of a part using stamping. During production schedule creation, intervals with all specified work center kinds available at the same time are picked to place a stage.
• Sequentially – work center kinds are loaded in the same order they are listed in the tabular section (according to the processing technology). When generating a production schedule, each following work center kind is loaded starting from the interval where the previous work center kind is placed. If not enough time is available for processing on a particular work center kind within this interval, the application searches for the first interval with available resources.
• Independently – when generating a production schedule, work center kinds are placed in random order independently of each other in the first interval available for each work center kind (several intervals).

The Load several work center kinds attribute value in the Production stage documents is inherited from a bill of resources.

The following production schedule calculation options are available for the selected production order in the Manufacturing – Intershop management – Order queue management workplace (click Actions):

• Plan the current one – the schedule planning form for the current order appears. Before planning the current order, make sure that all orders standing higher in the order queue are up-to-date. Otherwise, their replanning can make the calculated schedule of the current order irrelevant.
• Plan the selected ones – a production schedule will be calculated for the selected production order group.
• Plan the queue by the current one – a production schedule will be calculated for all orders that require update and have fulfillment priority higher than the current one, and for the current production order.

Use the Production schedule planning for order form for schedule calculation.

To start production schedule calculation, click Plan. To save calculation results for further use, click Save. The Production schedule planning for order form displays the current state of production schedule calculation.

The following information is displayed on separate tabs:

•  Summary information tab – the information on calculation results is displayed in graphical form, the calculation accuracy limits and recommendations for its use are specified.
• Products tab – the production parameters of the products specified in the order (Launch date, Release date, Duration, and Delay).
• Stages tab – stage completion parameters are displayed (Start and End):
  • Click Diagnostics to open the Diagnostics of the stage schedule form:

• Click Gantt chart if you want to analyze the position of a stage and its surroundings as a Gantt chart.

Main information on schedule calculation results is displayed on the Summary information tab.

To start schedule calculation, open the Planning settings form and click Plan.

The required completion period of a production order is initially specified in its parameters (dates in the Start not earlier than and Required release date fields). These dates are a guideline for production planning. Planning allows you to determine whether it is possible to meet the deadline using the following methods of production schedule calculation:

• By the model whose parameters are set by a user (the Plan model check box) – the actual possibility to fulfill an order within the specified period is assessed.
• Considering restrictions of the availability of equipment and materials (the Plan schedule check box) – the possibility of meeting the production deadline is analyzed considering the order priority and the availability of equipment and materials required for order fulfillment within the period under consideration.

You can also use the selected equipment availability reserves in both options (the Use availability reserve check box).

You can exclude the influence of any of the limiting resources using the model settings:

• All materials in stock – materials are available in full on the date they are required.
• Unlimited equipment fleet – equipment availability is not limited.
• Twenty-four hour operation without weekends (24/7) – overall equipment availability is limited by the number of units specified in the application. Each equipment unit is available at any time.
• No other orders – the order priority restriction is removed. The possibility of order fulfillment is considered if there are no production orders with higher priority. A parameter is captured by selecting the Unlimited equipment fleet parameter which makes all production resources unlimited.

The following settings determine replanning:

• Full replanning:
  • Check box is not selected – only stages that require recalculation will be replanned (not planned earlier or no longer relevant).
  • Check box is selected – all stages that have not yet been started will be replanned. For example, production order cancellation resulted in gaps in the equipment operation schedule. To fill them in, replan the stages that have not yet been started and should be fulfilled later based on the previous planning results. Formally, their fulfillment parameters remained relevant but it became possible to fulfill them earlier. That is why they are replanned.
• Cancel manual changes of schedule:
  • Check box is not selected – stages whose deadline was specified manually are not replanned.
  • Check box is selected – the mark of manual specification of stage fulfillment periods is cleared. Later these stages will be replanned automatically.

You can calculate a production schedule not only manually, but also automatically (on schedule). Select the Plan production schedule using a scheduled job check box in Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Manufacturing – Manufacturing to calculate a production schedule on the specified schedule.

Based on the production schedule calculation results, a comparative analysis of the required fulfillment period of the production order (Required by order), production according to the selected model (By model), and release time if material and production resources required for the order are available (considering the order priority) (On schedule) is carried out. Data for the analysis is displayed as several information groups.

Fulfillment duration and delay

Launch and release dates for each option being considered, duration of order fulfillment without limitations (By model), and duration of order fulfillment considering resource limitations (On schedule) are displayed. If meeting the deadline set in the production order seems impossible, the number of days of delay is calculated.

Deadline

The relative position of time periods of order fulfillment for considered options is displayed graphically. Green indicates the required fulfillment period specified in the production order (Required by order). Blue indicates an option of production considering resource availability restrictions (On schedule). Fulfillment time by the selected planning model is specified in yellow (By model).

If the yellow rectangle does not exceed beyond the green one, the order fulfillment is possible. A shift of the blue rectangle from the borders of the green one indicates the impossibility to fulfill an order within the required period (for example, as shown in the figure, a shift of the blue rectangle to the right from the border of the green rectangle indicates the delay in order fulfillment). In this case, expand the resource availability to perform the production order on time.

Equipment load

Five work center kinds with the highest load in terms of their availability are displayed in the Equipment load group. Comparison is based on a model without restrictions on production resource availability. Make sure that availability meets the demand so that the calculated schedule could be closer to the model data. To expand equipment availability, change the work schedule of specified work center kinds or specify possible use of alternative work center kinds. The list of work center kinds defines an order of dealing with availability increase from top to bottom to achieve the maximum effect with the least effort.

Delay in supply

Possible shifts in stage completion due to supply of an order with material resources are controlled. If there are stages whose completion was shifted for that reason, then five material items that keep the real schedule from being the perfect fulfillment model due to their supply time are specified in the tabular section. Supply with materials should be revised from the items that caused the greatest time shift in stage completion.

Calculation accuracy evaluation and recommendations

You can find a general conclusion of the relevance of the calculated production schedule and recommendations for overcoming the difficulties identified during its calculation.

If necessary, you can do production schedule diagnostics where calculation errors indicated on the Errors tab are considered. A production schedule option allowed in this particular situation is saved, and its stages are transferred into production.

Production order structure analysis

You can see the structure of production order drilled down by products and the relevant production state in the Production order structure form. To open the form, click Order structure in Manufacturing – Intershop management – Order queue management or in Manufacturing – Intershop management – Production orders as a context report of the Production order document.

Depending on the selected presentation kind in the Production order structure form, product structure can be displayed drilled down by semi-finished products (the Show stages check box is cleared):

For manufactured and semi-finished products, you can see demand fulfillment period according to the calculated production schedule and quantity actually produced as of the date when the form is opened.

If the Show stages check box is selected, you can see a stage-by-stage production process for each semi-finished product:

You can display a part of the Gantt chart (click Gantt chart) and make diagnostics (click Stage diagnostics) for the selected order stage.

In the form of a production order structure, you can edit and mark stage chains for deletion.

One of order objects is selected for changing:

• Order
• Manufactured products
• Semi-finished products
• Stage

Right-click the selected object, and then click Change stage chain or Mark stage chain for deletion. By clicking Change stage chain, a workplace to edit the stage sequence appears.

To delete all order stages, click Manufacturing – Intershop management – Order queue management, right-click the selected order, and then select the required action.

Features of migrating to version 2.2

Using Production management, version 2.1 and Production management, version 2.2 at the same time is not a standard application usage option. You can use both versions simultaneously only for transition as there are functionality restrictions for using the latter option.

When you simultaneously use options of Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Manufacturing – Production management, version 2.1 and Production management, version 2.2, you can see commands relevant for both options in the command interface of the Manufacturing section. Command selection is determined by registration conditions of a particular business transaction or action. It allows you to complete all production orders accepted for fulfillment before the transition by using Production management, version 2.1; to fulfill the newly created production orders, you can use the functionality of Production management, version 2.2.

Pay special attention to operations with master data.

If you select Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Manufacturing – Production management, version 2.2, all bills of resources with the Valid status keep this status; you can set the Valid status to the bills of resources only if they match the following requirements:

• There is one final stage in the BOR.
• Only the final stage is a release stage for all product kinds of redistribution which release is registered at the calculated cost.

When using BORs created in Production management, version 2.1 in production orders, fulfillment of above mentioned requirements is estimated. If there are several final stages in the BOR, an error message appears, and you should select the BOR again. For products for which calculation of the release cost is planned, but which are not specified at the final stage, a message appears showing that they are re-qualified to the release at a fixed cost.

If using Master data and settings – Master data and sections – Manufacturing – Production management, version 2.1, some new BOR features are unavailable (for example, product queue period control).

When using both production management options in production order queue simultaneously, a separate execution priority level (3-ADD) is applied to orders created in Production management, version 2.1.

If other conditions are equal, production orders created in Production management, version 2.1 must be quickly completed, that is why they have a higher priority level over the orders created in the new scheme.

Use the Migration to production management, version 2.2 wizard for easier migration. In a step-by-step mode, it allows you to perform the necessary actions to set master data and convert it:

• Set up supply schemes
• Create shop storerooms
• Set up supply parameters for shop storerooms
• Transfer production orders.

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