Critical Material report - all production orders

The purpose of the Production Order by Build Capability was to confirm that all Production Orders that were about to be released had the appropriate materials on hand.  The idea is that MRP is being leverage with the appropriate inventory levels set - sourcing the production order prior to release would be more an exception process than the norm.

It sounds to me the expectation is that most of the production orders will be short materials and you want an inquiry to manage this - is that correct?

Hi ​@angierowley75 - Yes, agree that MRP is to be leveraged.  This has been explained to the customer. However, they still want to be able to see in an inquiry, prior to release, what all their needs. They are not looking to actually sourcing prior to release, they just want to see it all.

Yes, they want an inquiry to visualize all shortages.  This is a financial person (controller) that wants visibility to everything that is going to be ordered soon. 

Hi ​@debbiereed72 were you able to find a solution? Thank you!

​@Chris Hackett Thank you for your follow up.  No, we did not find a good solution yet.

​@debbiereed72 Are multiple customers asking for this? 

This is something that customers ask for all of the time. There is a difference between running MRP and being able to identify what can take production priority. While MRP can tell you what to buy, and when to get it there, a consolidated critical materials report allows production planning and purchasing the opportunity to change their priorities, identify where they can slip in work, or what they need to expedite that are really holding up work. 

Especially when people are coming from a system that does not have MRP, having an intermediary step between full blown MRP and individual orders is helpful.  The Production Order by Build Capability is a great step, so you can identify what you are waiting on, but in my experience, any production planner wants to be able to run what is called a shortage report. They want to be able to identify what the top items holding up their production orders are at a glance. 

I have 20 production orders that are on the not ready status. 

those orders are all high priority. 

MRP is going to tell me to get those items and purchase them and get them here, but it is not going to very clearly draw the line between what is missing. 

The shortage report/consolidated critical materials report would allow me as the production planner to quickly look at those 20 orders and identify that there are 3 items that go into all 20 of those orders. I can make a gametime decision to call up a vendor and expedite, or see if i can make a change. MRP is going to provide suggestions, but not tell me why. 

Maybe it is a  $0.03 washer that is holding up these orders and I can run to the hardware store in 5 minutes to solve the probelm. Maybe it’s something that has to be ordered but isn’t needed until 5 months down the line, so I can start work on the project now. 

If you are using standard size materials, maybe you can identify what could be pushed through with an oversized piece. 

While MRP will consolidate and look at everything you need, it is also including purchased items, transfers, safety stock, kits, etc. It is often overwhelming for the production shop floor manager to sort through just to see what they can get on the machines. The consolidated critical material report is the one that is always done in excel, or exported and reviewed daily (or multiple times a day) by purchasing and production to make sure that they can keep machines moving.