APS Steps

This topic describes three categories of steps associated with APS planning:

Initial setup tasks
Periodic maintenance tasks
Routine, day-to-day procedures

Initial Setup Steps

Your system administrator or installation consultant might have already performed these initial setup steps. In some cases, these steps must be repeated periodically. For details, see the Infor SyteLine Installation Guide.

Use the Planner Manager utility to start the Planner Database Manager and create at least one planner database.
To start the Planner Manager, on the utility server, select Start > Programs > Infor > Planner Manager.
For instructions to create planner databases, see the Planner Manager online help or the Infor SyteLine Installation Guide.
Specify the planning parameters for your APS system. Perform these steps:
- Set up the production alternative (required).
- Enter a site record for the local site (required if you will be using APS or the Scheduler).
- Enter a site record for each of your supply sites that provide component parts to this site (required if you will be running APS Planning in Global mode).
- Define options located on the General and Advanced tabs.
Select the appropriate Operation Scheduling option on the Shop Floor Control Parameters form.
This parameter controls whether job operations are planned and scheduled by the number of pieces remaining to be completed or by the number of hours remaining to be performed.
If you are not using global planning, to replicate transfer orders to your supply sites, set up transfer order replication. If you are using global planning, but some sites are not participating in global planning runs, set up transfer order replication for those sites.

Maintenance Tasks

Perform these tasks on a regular or periodic basis to maintain your production data for planning.

For the users that will perform the Get ATP/CTP function on transactions such as customer orders, job orders, forecasts, estimates, and so on, assign their user IDs to the user group that provides the appropriate permissions.
The APS - Set Due Date &LT Projected and APS - Override Projected Date user groups allow the user to override the calculated availability date and enter an earlier date with which to plan the demand. For more information, see Availability Results.
Define planning options for your items.
Options on the Planning and Additional Planning tabs of the Items form determine how APS handles each inventory item.
If you want APS to consider more than two decimal places in quantity values, specify the number of decimal places in the Planning Precision field for each unit of measure code you are using.
Define lead times for purchased items.
Set up lead time shifts to represent business days for purchased items.
NOTE: If you do not do this, lead times assume 24-hour days and seven-day weeks.
To define the available working times your resources can process operations, set up scheduling shifts.
A default shift is predefined.
Create work centers for tracking operation costs.
Create resource groups and resources for performing the operations.
Create the current routing/BOM for each of your items.
Specify one or more resource groups on each operation in the routing. When you create a job, you can copy the current routing/BOM to the job (it serves as a template for the job routing/BOM).
To specify the time periods for organizing the output data on the Planning Summary Display, Master Planning Display, and Master Planning Report, create the Planning Horizon Calendar.
Enter forecasts for items.
Make sure item low-level codes are correct. To update the low-level codes, run the Current Bill of Material Processor and Job and PS Bill of Material Processor.
To group items that are authorized to be manufactured, create production schedules.
Production schedules are synonymous with work-orderless, or rate-based, manufacturing. APS views a production schedule as a regular demand for items with a due date. Thus, a daily production schedule for 10 items per day is planned as 5 daily orders for 10 items.
For items that you want to plan separately (usually high-cost items), create a master production schedule.
As with production schedules, master production schedule orders are considered demands in APS.
Specify order priorities for planning demands.
Test the viability of different production situations without affecting your database.

Routine Steps

The life cycle for a single demand usually proceeds through the APS and scheduling functions like this:

The order entry user promises the order (demand incrementally planned during Get ATP/CTP).
The planning user runs the APS Planning activity. APS generates planned order to fill unsatisfied demand quantity.
The planning user firms the planned order into a job (for example, on the Planning Detail form) and releases it.
The scheduling activity schedules the job and generates the dispatch list.
The job is executed on the shop floor according to the dispatch list.
The order is shipped.

The next two sections describe the routine tasks associated with these events in a demand's life cycle.

Nightly Steps

You can place these tasks on the Background Queue to be run nightly, when few or no users will be saving changes to records that are included in the plan and schedule. For more information, see Scheduling Reports and Utilities to Run in the Background.

Run the Scheduling activity using Days to Schedule value that equals the Plan Horizon value for the APS function.
Run the APS Planning activity.
If you are using APS in a multi-site environment, you can use the Global mode to plan all demands at all sites. Usually you will run APS with a long horizon such as one or two months.

Daily Activities

These activities can happen in parallel.

Create demands/promise orders during order entry and other daily activities. When you create a demand in the system, you can use the Get ATP/CTP function to project completion dates and to insert the demand into the current plan.
Analyze the planning output and determine the causes for any lateness.
Respond to the exception messages that display on the Exceptions Report or Planning Detail form.
To determine when you must generate and release a job order or purchase order to ensure that an item is available when needed, use the Material Planner Workbench or Order Action Report.
Firm planned orders using the Planning Detail form or the Material Planner Workbench form.
Execute production according to the dispatch list (generated by the Scheduling activity).
Record the status of operations (setup time, move time, and so on) for costing and scheduling purposes.

Troubleshooting

For descriptions of error messages you may encounter during any the above steps, see Troubleshooting MRP and APS.