Location supply rules and transfer planning

Location supply rules and transfer planning

In inventory management, supply chain settings determine how and when a location should be replenished with stock and when stock should be moved from one location to another.

Supply chain settings Transfer planning and Supply rules are used by Cin7 Core's Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module to generate supply suggestions – what quantity of stock to transfer, manufacture, and order from suppliers in order to meet demand, and when each action should take place. MRP is an optional add-on to your base subscription.

Prerequisites

 

Transfer planning

Transfer planning defines how frequently stock should be transferred from the current location to another location. These settings will be used by Cin7 Core's Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module to select the date of transfer supply suggestions to the demand during an MRP planning run period.

Supply intervals are set from the Locations screen (Settings → Reference Books → Stock → Locations and bins, select a Location and go to the Transfer planning tab). Multiple transfer plans can be set for a location. Transfer planning can be defined by frequency interval or by fixed days.

e.g. Our location has a fixed delivery transfer plan to transfer on Mondays. I have a sale demand of 20 chairs, required by Tuesday 25th of May. When I carry out an MRP run for this period, I will get a supply suggestion to transfer 20 chairs on Monday 19th May. This will cover all the required products to fulfill the demand.

NOTE: These settings are used to schedule transfer order supply suggestions. When carrying out a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) run, transfer order supply suggestions will be generated at the specified intervals or on the fixed day. The user must manually authorize the transfer order during the MRP run, transfer orders are not generated automatically.

Transfer at intervals

Transfer at intervals will generate transfer order supply suggestions for intervals of a certain number of days when carrying out a MRP run. Transfer order suggestions are from the current location to the demand location.

  1. On the Transfer planning tab select Planning method: Transfer at intervals.

  2. Select one or more Demand locations from the dropdown menu.

  3. Enter the number of days in the interval and a Start date. The first delivery will be suggested on the start date, the next delivery suggestion will take place [interval] days after the start date

    • All days are considered working days for transfer at intervals.

  4. Save your changes.

  

Transfer on fixed days

Transfer on fixed days will generate transfer order supply suggestions for fixed days of the week when carrying out a MRP run. Transfer order suggestions are from the current location to the demand location.

  1. On the Transfer planning tab select Planning method: Transfer on fixed days.

  2. Select one or more Demand locations from the dropdown menu.

  3. Check boxes to indicate transfer days.

  4. Save your changes.

  

Supply rules (Replenishment)

In inventory management, supply chain strategy determines when products should be produced in-house, bought from suppliers, delivered to distribution centers, and made available in the retail channel. This kind of supply chain strategy can be implemented in Cin7 Core by creating Supply rules.

Once supply rules for a location have been configured, these will serve as instructions for Cin7 Core's Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module to generate purchase orders, transfer orders, assemblies and production orders to cover demand at a location.

NOTE: MRP module will generate supply suggestions automatically from these settings, however creation of orders from supply suggestions is a manual process initiated by a user.

Supply rules are set from the Locations screen (Settings → Reference Books → Stock → Locations and bins, select a Location and go to the Supply rules tab). A supply rule can apply to all products, to certain product families, brands, categories, and product tags, or to a single product. Multiple supply rules can be set for a location.

Note: When a product could match several supply rules, the rule will be applied in this order or priority: Family, Tag, Category, Brand. Rules that apply to specific product groups will be prioritized over rules that apply to all products.

Example: Our example organization produces chairs. The supply of chairs at the organization's Main Warehouse can be replenished from four sources according to the following priorities:

  • Rule #1: Chairs are transferred from supplementary warehouse 1 to the main warehouse.

  • Rule #2: If no chairs are available in supplementary warehouse 1, chairs are transferred from supplementary warehouse 2 to the main warehouse.

  • Rule #3: If no chairs are available in either supplementary warehouse, chairs are produced on the shop floor and delivered to the main warehouse.

  • Rule #4: If no chairs are available in the supplementary warehouse, and the shop floor does not have enough capacity to produce chairs, chairs can be purchased from a supplier and delivered to the main warehouse.

If one rule cannot be executed, the next rule will be triggered.

In Cin7 Core, this is configured like so:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Reference Books → Stock → Locations and bins and select the Locations tab.

  2. Select a Location and go to the Supply rules tab.

  3. Enter a Name for the supply rule.

  4. Select if a supply rule will apply to All products or Select products. Multiple supply rules can be implemented for a location. For this example, we will select All Products.

  5. When you have completed a rule, Save changes and click Back to list or return to the Supply rules tab to add another supply rule.  

Create a transfer supply rule

Transfer supply rules generate supply suggestions to move stock to the demand location from another location. The stock amount to move will depend on the stock level settings at the demand location and the demand quantity.

In our example, Rule #1 is for a Transfer task - Chairs are transferred from supplementary warehouse 1 to the main warehouse.

  1. Select Transfer supply task.

  2. Select the supply location.

  3. Select the maximum stock quantity to transfer from the supply location. You can choose to transfer:

    • All available stock at the supply location, regardless of stock level settings.

    • All available stock up to stock level (Minimum before reorder + reorder quantity) at the supply location.

    • All available stock up to minimum before reorder quantity at the supply location.

    • Note: See Setting up low stock reorder points for more information on general and location-specific stock level settings. We recommend using location-specific settings to use MRP module (Settings → General Settings → Purchase process customisation, set Minimum before Reorder specified for: Each location

  4. Select the demand quantity to be transferred.

    • All required: Will only create a transfer order suggestion for the full amount required. If the full amount is not available at the supply location, the rule cannot be executed, and the next rule will be triggered.

    • Partial: Will create a transfer order suggestion for a partial amount if the full amount required is not available at the supply location. The next rule will be triggered.

 

Rule #2 is also for a Transfer task - Chairs are transferred from supplementary warehouse 2 to the main warehouse if no chairs are available at supplementary warehouse 1. Our transfer rules could look like this:     

Create a production supply rule

Production supply rules generate production supply suggestions at a shop floor location. Produce supply rules always generate a transfer supply suggestion for the finished goods from the shop floor back to the demand location along with the production supply suggestion. This rule is only applied to products with a Production BOMor an Assembly BOM.

See Getting Started with the Production module for more information on production features and Finished Goods Assembly for more information on assembly features.

In our example, Rule #3 is for a Production task - If no chairs are available in either supplementary warehouse, chairs are produced on the shopfloor and delivered to the main warehouse. In our organization, we will only trigger production if the shop floor has 50% or more of its total production capacity free.

  1. Select Produce supply task.

  2. Select a shop floor location where the production will take place.

  3. Select how much production capacity should be available (as a percentage of total capacity) for production suggestion to be triggered. If there is not enough capacity on the shopfloor, the rule cannot be executed and the next rule will be triggered.

    • Capacity % for the location is calculated as ratio of the available capacity to the total capacity for the location for the planning period.

    • See Capacity Planner for more information on resource capacity.

    • Capacity % will not affect assembly orders – assembly orders will be triggered regardless of capacity.

  

Create a purchase supply rule

Purchase supply rules generates purchase orders for the required product. Products will need to have supplier information added in order to generate purchase supply tasks. See Add suppliers to a product for more information on adding suppliers, supplier prices, and supplier lead times to a product.

In our example, Rule #4 is for a Purchase task - If no chairs are available in the supplementary warehouse, and the shop floor does not have enough capacity to produce chairs, chairs can be purchased from the supplier with the lowest lead time and delivered to the main warehouse.

  1. Select Purchase supply task.

  2. Select the supplier criteria:

    • Lowest price

    • Lowest lead time

    • Latest supplier

  3. This will trigger a purchase order suggestion for the remaining demand quantity.

  

Trigger a final action if no rule conditions are met

If each supply rule has been triggered but the conditions have not been met, a final action will be triggered. Final actions can be transfer, production, or purchase rules or no action at all.

  • Transfer rules will trigger a transfer order suggestion regardless of the stock level settings or availability at the supply location. If there is no stock availability, this will create a demand at the supply location.

  • Production rules will trigger a production order suggestion at the supply location regardless of available production capacity.

  • Purchase rules will trigger a purchase order suggestion from the supplier.

  • Nothing will not trigger a suggestion at the supply location and the demand quantity will remain unchanged.

  

Create supply rules for some products only

Supply rules can apply to all products, selected products only, or even one or more individual products. Product Families, Tags, Categories and Brands can be selected from the dropdown menu fields, or individual products can be selected from your inventory.

  • The supply rule is assigned to products which match all of the selected values. The relationships inside the group for selection is OR. The relations among the groups is AND.

  • When a product could match several supply rules, the rule will be applied in this order or priority: Family, Tag, Category, Brand. Rules that apply to specific product groups will be prioritized over rules that apply to all products.

  • Supply rules cannot have identical product parameters.

 

  

Clone a supply rule

Supply rules can be cloned to save time. Navigate to Settings → Reference Books → Stock → Locations & Bins, select a Location and go to the Supply Rules tab. Click Clone Rule to make a copy of an existing rule. Supply rules cannot have identical product parameters. After making changes, Save the cloned rule.

  

Co-manufacturing locations

Co-manufacturing locations have some special features which are explained below:

  • Supply rules: Supply rules can be set for co-manufacturing locations, this is required to generate supply suggestions in an MRP run. As co-manufacturing location is an external location, the only possible rules are transfer and purchase.

  • Transfer planning: Co-manufacturing locations can be selected as a Demand location for transfer planning. Co-manufacturing locations cannot be selected as a replenishment source for any other location.

  • Supply suggestions: The supply suggestions contain replenishment orders for co-manufacturing locations, generated based on supply rules and transfer planning.

    • Note: The supplier for purchase suggestions is the supplier listed for the work center set up for co-manufacturing operation. Product-level supplier settings are ignored (lead time, reorder, min before reorder). Lead time and stock level = 0. Purchase order supplier settings from MRP run are also ignored.

Was this article helpful?

Have more questions? Submit a request