MFG/PRO 9.0 User Guide Volume 3: Manufacturing - QAD.com

232 MFG/PRO USER GUIDE — MANUFACTURING
Multilevel Master Scheduling
Sometimes, demand for an item is dependent on demand for another item.
This is typical in assemble-to-order environments where it is unrealistic to
stock all of the possible combinations of end items included in the
selection of available models and options.
In these cases, it is impossible to accurately forecast all of these possible
combinations for master production scheduling purposes. Instead, you
can forecast items at the family-item and planning or option-item levels.
Multilevel master scheduling enables you to perform this type of
forecasting for planning purposes.
Planning Bills
You can establish the relationship between family-level items and
planning or option items by defining planning bills in Product Structure
Maintenance (13.5) or Formula Maintenance (15.5).
Usually, the top-level item of a multilevel master schedule product
structure, or planning bill, represents the entire group, or family, of
products that can be configured from a set of available models and
options. Family items are never manufactured or stocked. You must
define family items with a Pur/Mfg code of Family (F) in Item Master
Maintenance (1.4.1) Item Planning Maintenance (1.4.7) or Item-Site
Planning Maintenance (1.4.17).
Components of the family item in the planning bill can be either:
• The actual manufactured items or configured products
• Item groups representing common components or selected options
A planning bill also contains a forecast percentage and a structure code.
The forecast percentage is the probability that a component of the familylevel
or parent item will be required, given the requirements for its parent.
The structure code determines whether or not the sale of a component
should also cause the forecast to be consumed for its parent. Components
with structure code Planning consume the forecast for their parent, while
those with structure code Option do not.