BPCS Guidance Re: help -- BPCS-L

You are asking questions that require knowledge of BPCS that goes beyond beginner stage, and your terminology is a bit confusing. It would be big help if you identified what VERSION of BPCS you on, because there is some stuff that cannot be done on versions before that stuff was invented.

BPCS is heavily based on ERP theory, as defined by APICS, but there are gaps between classic ERP theory and BPCS implementation.

We use FACILITIES.
There is the facility in this city, the facility in that city.
They have all the same items, item coding, descriptions, etc.
SOME FILES have data BY FACILITY ... like inventory, costs, sales, orders
SOME FILES have one figure for the whole outfit
There is some data that CROSSES facilities such as RESUPPLY ORDERS

Basically, as part of your education in how BPCS works, before it is installed and implemented, there is an evaluation made as to what files need to be by facility, which global, and how to manage that. Expect this education to take a few weeks, and run a few pilots with your project team before you get it perfected.

We have some customers with divisions. Ship to this address, ship to that address, same customer name We can use a CORPORATE BILLING for all branches of the same customer. We can track what each division wants same items different items Only complication is when two divisions same customer order same part two different revision #s Like their North Carolina factory is on revision E and their South Carolina factory is on revision C of the same item For end items we use the customer ordered part # but in a very few cases the customer part # is more than 15 characters, or two different customers have same part # for entirely different things. Another complication is REPAIR Typically the item to be repaired is very similar to the original item We use the item # with letter R on the end to designate that Repair is what is going on Similarly SAMPLES before the customer has approved the design, may be a bit different from the final version We use the letter "S" on end of item # to designate that this is the Samples version

Minimum Balance is also known as Safety Stock. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For example, we have customers who expect 10 days or less lead time from us. They order something and expect us to ship it in a week or so But some of the components have a lead time for us of like 60 days Based on past experience, we have set a Safety Stock of some quantity on-hand so we not likely to run out of some purchased parts. As soon as BPCS sees that we have dropped below our Safety Stock, MRP tells us to order some more. Another example is we have sub-assemblies that we make, in which the efficient way to make the part is in runs of like 1,000, but if we make only what the customer needs, we making like 25 which is unit wise extremely costly. Well we could use Order Policy Code for this, but what we use is Safety Stock

BPCS supports something called Dynamic Safety Stock Some of our customers have seasons ... they want lots in the summer but none in winter, or vica versa. We can have BPCS calculate enough to be on hand to meet a _____ day supply using the next ____ months demand to do the math averaging for that. This way, when the customer season drops off, so does the level of our safety stock.

Horizon Days is another part of MRP logic. You can go mad trying to understand by studying one element at a time ... it is like trying to learn how to drive by studying one road sign at a time without first learning the rules of the road. I suggest you sign up for BPCS University, and take some classes in MRP and related applications. Budget a few weeks and a few thousand dollars, per person who needs to learn this.

The el cheapo route is to go into BPCSDOC and find the SSARUN document on MRP, print the sucker out, and dig into it for a few days, plus learn how to use SEU PDM or CODE/400 to FIND entries, like search for where "Horizon" is discussed, then when it is explained in the context of other stuff, search for where that other stuff is also discussed.

A quick and dirty route is to have a test environment.
Copy your MRP plans into simulation area,
Tweak this whatsit & do a regeneration
Ok, what has changed?
Write up what that whatsit does
Now change some other whatsit and go through the same process again
When you get exhausted, take a break
Plan on studying 2-3 whatsits a day for a couple months

Probably the most economical route is to call your tech support and request a copy of the documentation on that particular

The difference between Horizon Days and Minimum Balance Horizon Days is like explaining the difference between road sign of MERGE and YIELD to someone who does not know what an Interstate is.

I apologize if my effort at a humorous analogy is insulting.

, you wrote:

Hi,

I am working on BPCS as Functional consultant.

I request your help.

Q.1) If there are more than one companies of the same Group at different
locations manufacturing the same product models.

If they are having different Item Codes and/or different Item
descriptions,
then to standardize on Items (harmonization) between these companies, with

MINIMAL CHANGES in the system, what is the systematic (step by step)
approach that I have to follow ?

Q.2) What is a concept of Horizon Days ? What is its significance ?

Q.3) What is the difference between MPS Horizon Days & Minimum Balance
Horizon Days ?

Requesting your valuable guidance on the above at the earliest,

Thanks & Best Regards,

Dnyanesh


Dnyanesh R Deshpande
Sr. Consultant,
Linc Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
email: deshpande@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

- Al Macintyre http://www.ryze.com/go/Al9Mac Find BPCS Documentation Suppliers http://radio.weblogs.com/0107846/stories/2002/11/08/bpcsDocSources.html BPCS/400 Computer Janitor at http://www.globalwiretechnologies.com/ Part time may get commission from some BPCS vendors for helping them ... I will now say in a post if the product I commenting on is also one potentially involved with this ... not that I have made anything from this yet.