The Distribution Requirements Planning and Manufacturing features are mutually exclusive—that is, you cannot enable one of these features if the other is enabled.
In this chapter, you will do the following:
You may need to configure inventory planning in the following cases:
In Acumatica ERP, a user can perform inventory planning regeneration on the Regenerate Inventory Planning (AM505000) form. The system matches supply and demand based on dates, identifies shortages, and makes suggestions to prevent stockouts. The user can view the list of planning recommendations—such as Sales Order, Purchase Order, Transfer Demand, or Sales Order Non-Stock Kit—in the Type table column on the Inventory Planning Display (AM400000) form. In the Related Document column, the system inserts the link to the demand document whose items are listed in the table. On the same form, depending on the recommendations, the user can create the following recommended supply orders:
Also, for orders with items that are scheduled to arrive too early or too late, the system generates exceptions of a type—such as Late Order, Transfer Available, Delete, Expedite, or Defer—and lists these exceptions on the Inventory Planning Exceptions (AM403000) form. In the Related Document table column, the system inserts the link to a supply document related to the exception.
In Acumatica ERP, to configure inventory planning, you perform the following general steps:
After all the required configuration steps have been performed, a user can perform inventory planning on the Regenerate Inventory Planning (AM505000) form, view the results on the Inventory Planning Display form, and take the needed actions. For details about this process, see Inventory Planning with MRP: General Information and Inventory Planning with DRP: General Information.
To include in inventory planning the on-hand quantity of items in a particular warehouse location, you select the check box in the Inventory Planning column on the Locations tab of the Warehouses (IN204000) form in the row with the location’s settings.
In the Inventory Planning Settings section of the Inventory Planning tab, you can select the check boxes that determine the supply and demand data the system uses for this warehouse during inventory planning, such as the following:
We recommend that you select all the check boxes for a complete planning picture. If all the check boxes are cleared, the warehouse is completely excluded from inventory planning.
If the Inventory Planning check box is cleared for a warehouse location, then any production orders with this location as the planned receipt location are excluded from inventory planning.
The Transfer Lead Time table is shown on the Inventory Planning tab if the Multiple Warehouses feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form. In this table, you can view and add warehouses from which stock items can be transferred to the warehouse selected on the form and specify the default transfer lead time of each warehouse, which the system will use during inventory planning. The system will use this lead time for items transferred between the current warehouse and the listed warehouse.
On the Item Warehouse Details (IN204500) form, you can override this lead time for an item‒warehouse pair if different shipment methods may be used to transfer the stock item. For example, small items might be eligible for air shipment within 3 days, while large bulky items might need to travel by ocean for 40 days.
For each stock item that you want to include in inventory planning, you should select the MRP or DRP planning method on the General tab (Item Defaults section) of the Stock Items (IN202500) form. In the inventory planning process, the system uses supply and demand data for the combination of the stock item and the warehouse.
Stock items with a status of Inactive or Marked for Deletion are excluded from inventory planning. Items with any of the following statuses are included in planning: Active, No Sales, No Purchases, and No Request.
For each item involved in inventory planning, we recommend that you specify replenishment settings on the Inventory Planning tab of the following form:
In the Inventory Planning Settings section of the tab on either form, you should specify a value in the Safety Stock or Reorder Point box, depending on the value of the Stocking Method box on the Inventory Planning Preferences (AM100000) form.
If the replenishment source is Purchase, Purchase to Order, or Drop Shipment on the Inventory Planning Settings tab of the Stock Items form for an item, the system also uses the following settings. They are specified on the Vendors tab on the Stock Items form for the preferred vendor (if the Default check box is selected on this tab for any vendor) or the Inventory Planning tab of the Item Warehouse Details form:
The system will update the Safety Stock, Reorder Point, Min. Order Qty., Max. Order Qty., or Lot Size box on the Inventory Planning tab of the Item Warehouse Details form for an item–warehouse pair if the following conditions are met:
The system can be configured to create planning recommendations of the Planned Transfer Demand type on the Inventory Planning Display (AM400000) form if it finds information about available item transfers during planning. The reference numbers of planning recommendations for transfer are generated automatically, listed on the Related Document table column, and have the PLTR prefix. A planning manager can then convert the planning recommendation to a transfer order.
To configure the system to do this, for each item that can be transferred from another warehouse, you do the following on the Item Warehouse Details (IN204500) form:
If item transfer between the warehouses usually takes more than one day, you can specify the transfer lead time that the system will use in inventory planning as follows:
If the Kit Assembly feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, you can configure the system to include the stock components of stock and non-stock kits in inventory planning.
To make the system generate demand requirements for the stock components of a stock kit, you do the following:
To make the system generate demand requirements for the stock components of a non-stock kit, you do the following:
A non-stock kit is considered by the inventory planning process if it is included in a sales order on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form or in a forecast record on the Forecast (AM202000) form.
You can also indicate whether the system should include on-hold kit assemblies in inventory planning. To include them, you select the new Include On-Hold Kit Assemblies check box in the General section of the Inventory Planning Preferences (AM100000) form. When this check box is cleared, kit assemblies with the On Hold status are excluded from the process and are listed as exceptions on the Inventory Planning Exceptions (AM403000) form.
We strongly recommend that you set up an automation schedule to run inventory planning regeneration daily during the night or early morning so that the results are available for your organization’s planners and buyers at the start of their workday. You can create an automation schedule either on the Regenerate Inventory Planning (AM505000) form or on the Automation Schedules (SM205020) form. You should set the schedule to run after all other scheduled processes that affect supply and demand are run to ensure that the inventory planning process has the most up-to-date data. The following automated processes affect inventory planning: