I am curious to know if anyone else is experiencing “Inventory” issues? What I mean by this is my company is pointing the blame of our inventory issues to Epicor (E9). They are saying that the PO Suggestions are driving our inventory up. I have said that the part parameters have to be correct but they are convinced that this is a system issue where I say it is a data issue. Has anyone experienced this and how did they go about turning the perception around? Thank you!
I had this issue at my previous employer. The MRP is a complicated beast with many, many parameters that drive the output. I can’t say there are arent any bugs or special cases that might be problematic, but for the most part, it works rather well. If overstock is the primary issue, why not place caps on the max onhand for any given part. This seems like a quick way to solve that particular issue.
With that said, I am developer and not well versed on the intricacies of using/configuring the MRP - but there are many users on here who will hopefully chime in.
I would start with a small subset of Parts and walk through the Demand and Supply, either using Time Phase, or a customer BAQ/Dashboard using Part Detail table for example. Do this in a test database and work with those that are not familiar enough with how PO Suggestions work to show them the setups you are using on those parts, (i.e. Min/Safety/Max, Lot Size, Days of supply, etc)
Change demand based on Sales Orders, Jobs, and rerun PO Suggestions each time and validate the output with those users.
Keep in mind also that if your team is not keeping up with Change suggestions, you may be missing some critical information. For example, I have seen instances where Engineers will requisition PO’s or, just create their own PO’s while Purchasing is working off new PO Suggestions
Its critical that roles and processes be developed and followed to make sure your process is not driving additional inventory, not the Epicor logic itself
1 Like
If you are speaking of PO suggestions in a single site environment in E9.05.702, Your issue is most likely data (incorrect settings on PartPlant records). I implemented a large number of customers using MRP/PO Suggestions for purchased parts in E9.05.702 and had very few issues when data is set-up correctly. The MRP technical reference guide is quite useful in explaining how the settings affect the results.
Mark W. suggestion of starting with a small subset of parts (or part) and working through that to understand the settings is the only way to go to develop an understanding of the results.
Thank you! I think finding a MRP expert is the direction I need to go. Lots of dials that impact the PO Suggestions.
You might want to Lock Qty on the Purchase Order and Jobs.
Epicor MRP definitely has some quirks.
It’s certainly not the first time I have heard of Epicor been blamed for pushing inventory levels up, in my experience, unfairly.
Bearing in mind that PO suggestions are based around min max settings, the first thing to do is verify these levels and the business rules that were applied in defining these. For example, products with a long lead time, typically have higher min levels, but are the leads time accurate, if not, then does the min level need to be reduced.
Generally, high min levels, means high levels of inventory and if you restock to max, then high max levels can mean even higher inventory levels.
Another thing to consider is how volatile the demand is. If your demand is volatile and orders are frequently cancelled then firm jobs can no longer be relevant, but are still scheduled.
This is where the production planner needs to be monitoring suggestions to reduce or cancel jobs, which will then have knock on effect on purchasing demand, which then means that the purchasing department need to be reducing or cancelling PO’s in a timely manner.
For my ow piece of mind, I take a snapdhot of PO suggestions after every MRP run to an archive table, just so we are able to see that PO suggestions are been acted upon.
I have a report that runs daily that highlights to users when a part will go over 120% (entered as a parameter) in the next 365 days, based upon demand and PO suggestions, to allow them to easily identify rogue parts.
The key thing is accurate data and people been clear about their roles and responsibilities.
With all the above actions in place, I have not found anything that points to MRP raising inventory levels.
These comments cover versions 10.0.07 (with patches applied) and 10.1.6.