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Offsetting MPS/RCCP, MRP/CRP

Hi,

 

I'm implement MPS in our company and I have some doubts regarding Capacity Planning Reports because I hasn't been able to offset my capacity before release my MPS plan.

I have a operation that takes weeks to be accomplished and my work center has a certain capacity. However, when I use the capacity planning report (Load or Availability) it doesn't split my operation total time through the days available. It just sum the total operation time (setup and run time) and load its due date (according with the Execution day). For example, I have a work center that works 7hr daily (mon-fri),therefore my daily capacity is 420 min. I have an operation that takes 5 days to accomplish and his run time is 2100 min (5 days x 7 hr x 60 min) and it due date is day 5 (Execution day = 5). It should shows me that my capacity from day 1 to 5 is fully load with availability from day 6. However, Xtuple shows that I have capacity available from day 1 to 4 and my day 5 is overloaded in -1680min (capacity: 420min, load: 2100min).

How can I see that this particular operation is loading my days according my finite capacity?

 

Has anything that I am missing or this is the way that operation works on Xtuple?

 

Thanks,

Laercio,

You are not missing anything.  Today, the application is an Infinite Capacity system.  It will look at the start day of an operation, and load all the time on that day.  You can offset the start of the next operation using the offset days field on the line of the Routing.  But today, there is not an ability for Capacity to load forward based on the requirement of the operation, while recognizing the manufacturing schedule.  

This is a feature we talked about adding to the application.  We would be happy to discuss with you what kind of an effort it would entail to extend the application if you had an interest in sponsoring such a feature.

Good morning!

Xtuple is so great all around except for this one issue listed on this thread. I think that this is a critical lacking feature on the program that probably dissuades a good amount of users from using Xtuple. XTuple is a GREAT piece of software but without this one feature it makes the software ALMOST the right solution. Without being able to effectively plan Xtuple just barely falls short of being an amazing solution. What kind of an investment is it to build this feature in? From a programming side it’s not the intense of an endeavor as long as it’s not going back through and rewriting a bunch of buggy code.

To expound on it for the software engineer:

  1. I have 9 work centers in my operation.

  2. I have 5 unique work center types (different types of equipment)

  3. Each job takes roughly the same amount of setup/cleanup time

  4. Each job has different number of units to produce [eg. Machine 1 is a capsule machine (production capacity 900 capsules/minute), machine two is a bottle filler that fills bottle with capsules (capacity 4/minute), Machine 3 is a labeling machine for bottles (capacity 15/minute), Machine 4 is a lid sealing machine (capacity 120/minute)]

  5. Job for 5,000 bottles at 60 capsules per bottle is received -> based on current production schedule when will the job hit the different work centers next on the schedule and create estimated ETA of finished product?

This feature requires multiple dependencies and a good schedule.

This feature also requires an extra field in Asset Mgmt for creating new types of assets that are used in Work centers. If a piece of equipment becomes unusable and is down for repair that needs to be modifiable and shift work load to other pieces of equipment that handle the same process and adjust schedules accordingly.

This will require a little bit of money for a skilled programmer to knock out but it will make Xtuple 10x more desirable to manufacturers.

Whatever the cost incurred to deliver this feature will be recouped in a hurry with additional subscribers.

Thanks!

Chase

Hi Chase,
Thank you for your post. We are always happy to engage in conversations around specific functionality. This is certainly a BIG topic. Resource Capacity Scheduling is one that always gets people thinking. It always starts off seeming straight forward, but it doesn’t take much to make the scheduling challenges VERY complex. When you take into account not just the work centers, but potentially the people required to work at a certain work center, and shop scheduling, and the potential for overtime, and individual machine availability/maintenance, you bring in lots of variables. I am sure you could even think of more.

It’s not that this challenge cannot be solved. It’s just that when we start getting very specific as to how companies want to solve it, we get many, many different answers. It would take a customer or group of customers sponsoring a feature like this to get Resource Capacity Scheduling into the software.

I would be happy to have a more in-depth discussion on this topic if you’d like.

Thank you again for adding to the conversation.