RE: MPS - Customer Demand and General ECL Date Questions

We use safety stock on raw materials and have occasionally discussed
whether we should use it on sub-assemblies that go through production
bottlenecks, because limiting factors for us include setup time ... the
factory machines are very fast and efficient, not unlike the AS/400, what
can make a big difference is switching between the different things they
making.  Also some raw materials come in containers that are much larger
than the quantity that may be needed for a particular job (reels of wire)
which means we may have enough to meet MRP, but it is all sitting in
production on other parts.

We have not been seriously using CAP ... Oh we run CAP160 CAP500 CAP600 on
two facilities two nites a week, after MRP500 MRP600 which we run on all
facilities every nite, and we have a Query/400 which totals the hours by
department, so HR has a heads up on projected people hours needed, but
usually Capacity has not been as critical as Material, but a situation has
recently come up in which I anticipate that some time next year we may need
to learn how to work CAP correctly.

I have modified some MRP software but it has been a few years ago, so I not
feel like I can speak authoritatively on the logic.  Suffice it to say that
given all the number crunching that is going on, I am amazed at how fast
the 400 gets the job done.

-
Also on 4.05CD and planning on visiting Al Mac, though he doesn't know it
yet :)

I'm in Evansville Indiana.
I was not planning to attend the AS/400 User meeting next week (topic is
web facing)
I was not planning to leave town over the holiday season.


Al Macintyre
BPCS/400 Computer Janitor at http://www.globalwiretechnologies.com/
See Al http://www.ryze.com/view.php?who=Al9Mac
Find BPCS Documentation Suppliers
http://radio.weblogs.com/0107846/stories/2002/11/08/bpcsDocSources.html