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Planning turns future demand into production and procurement decisions. In Bonx, it has three levels that feed one another. Bonx intelligence can prefill plans from available data. The planner reviews these proposals, adjusts them and then validates them.

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The three planning levels

1

Demand planning

Estimate future sales by article and period. Compare several plan versions to include updated sales forecasts.
2

Production planning

Convert demand into quantities to manufacture. Account for available stock, expected receipts, committed orders and safety stock.
3

Procurement planning

Derive the components and articles to buy from the production plan and bills of materials. Account for stock and expected purchase orders.

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Understand the cascade

A sales forecast creates demand for a finished product. The production plan determines the quantity to manufacture to cover that demand. Bills of materials then turn this quantity into component requirements. The procurement plan finally determines the quantities to buy. When an upstream plan changes, recalculate requirements before launching downstream actions. This prevents production or purchasing from using an outdated forecast.
Bonx intelligence prepares a proposal. Business rules and the planner’s validation remain decisive before any launch.

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Launch production

Material requirements planning projects stock from expected inbound and outbound movements. It includes current stock and safety stock to propose a quantity to manufacture and a requirement date. Bonx then applies the article’s launch rules:
  • the minimum launch quantity raises a proposal that is too low;
  • the launch increment rounds the quantity up to the next multiple;
  • the process batch size keeps manufacturing batches whole; and
  • the maximum launch quantity splits the requirement between several manufacturing orders.
A process batch remains indivisible. If one batch exceeds the maximum launch quantity, the manufacturing order can therefore exceed this limit.
Before creating manufacturing orders, check the proposed quantity, site, process and date.

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Launch purchases

For purchased articles, Bonx calculates the remaining requirement after accounting for stock and expected receipts. The proposal uses the main supplier when one is configured. Bonx applies two quantity rules:
  • the minimum order quantity raises a proposal that is too low; and
  • the order increment rounds the quantity up to the next multiple.
Check the supplier, quantity and expected date. You can then create a purchase order or add the requirement to a compatible open order.

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Data to maintain

Plan quality depends on the following data in particular:
  • forecasts and their versions;
  • dates of expected orders and movements;
  • current stock, reservations and safety stock;
  • bills of materials and manufacturing processes;
  • launch and purchasing rules; and
  • main suppliers.
Planning selects the requirements to cover. Scheduling then places production operations on specific machines and time slots.

Continue to scheduling

Organize manufacturing-order operations in the workshop.