Discrete allocations

This discussion is mainly directed to Dale Gindlesperger @ Fleetwood but
I am posting to the MAPICS list to welcome other comments.

In June 2006 Dale stated that they were discretely allocating parts at
the time of order picking not at order entry time. They were
"programmagically" changing the allocation code on the order item record
and writing records into the SLALLO file.

I believe we want to do the same thing but have many questions:

1. If at order entry time you do not allocate discretely - do you do the
item balance file pick list requirement PLREQ type of allocation? i.e.
- does PLREQ show the total current requirements?

2. Who causes the pick list to print and how do they decide it is time
to print it.

3. What tricks do you have to do to get MAPICS to fully cooperate with
this procedure?

4. If you view various inquiry screens, have you modified any of the
fields which show allocations? i.e. - you would be showing nothing
allocated unless a pick list was being processed. Since nothing is
allocated early, can sales people make any promises on providing scarce
products?

5. Do you do any directed picking? Has the pick list been modified
to tell the picker where to find the material?

6. Having never done this I am not sure I know what questions to ask.
Can anyone on the list fill in some of the blanks?

7. Does anyone have source code for these kinds of mods to share?

We do not use the MAPICS MRP mdules - we have our own version so that is
not a problem.
We use our own offline shipping programs - not the MAPICS version.

TIA,
Greg Wenzloff
Beck Mfg.
717-762-9141 ext 246

XAR4