Requirements - Distribution Requirements Planning (DRS)

Distribution Requirements Planning (DRS)

Order Processing

• Report on customer service levels by:
• Customer
• Broker
• Distribution Center
• Identify abnormal sales figures caused by promotions, etc. in sales history data
• Integrate multiple warehouse finished goods available inventory quantities in order to commit inventory to new customer sales
• •Maintain open sales order backlog information for specific products and quantities ordered against specific warehouses and distribution centers
• Report on shipment performance to planned ship date by:
• Distribution center
• Remote warehouse
• Carrier
• Product and product family
• Report on sales order price breaks, discounts, freight allowances, promotion allowances for later comparison to receivables, accounts payable and actual freight charges (freight recovery/audit)
• Report on profit performance of each distribution center and summarized overall by:
• Label (product brand name)
• Product family
• Customer
• Broker (sales representative)
• Maintain historical sales information by lot number for warranty and quality assurance purposes
• Determine which customers received particular lot(s) and when for "recall" purposes
• Allocate finished goods to customer order from multiple distribution centers
• Capture information on the effects promotions have on existing and new product sales performance by:
• Distribution center
• Summarized
• Capture promotional/discount allowances paid to customers or brokers when revenues are not generated
• Maintain multiple costs structures and select the correct one based on the following:
• – Distribution center
• Warehouse location
• Originating plant (manufacturing site)
• Date effectivity
• Quantity breaks
• Assign a distribution center warehouse to a customer shipto address as:
• Primary warehouse as a least cost shipping alternative
• Assign a secondary warehouse to a specified customer shipto address.

Forecasting/Master Scheduling

• Simulate the effect of sales forecast:
• Production resources or capacity requirements using Bill of Resources (BOR) or equivalent
• Production requirements by exploding forecast into a production schedule
• Simulate the effect of master schedule changes without modifying existing schedule:
• Production resources or capacity requirements using BOR or equivalent
• Warehouse inventory consumption based on existing or projected inventory levels
• Warehouse storage requirements by comparing to projected time phased sales
• Expected material shelflife expiration by computing average time in storage per period based on projected time phased demand
• Simulate target service level assumptions, given a sales forecast or master schedule, to determine the effect on safety stock levels, warehouse space, resource requirements and production requirements
• Ability for sales forecast model to include the following:
• Seasonal factors
• Sales trend factors
• Smoothing factors and constants
• Impact of sales promotions
• Forecast at the individual distribution center or warehouse level and aggregate into total time phased product requirements for master scheduling and MRP processing
• Forecast at one unit of measure (e.g., pallets) and system automatically convert into Forecast demand for returnable containers such as drums, containers, pallets, etc.

Inventory Control Distribution Network

• Define a distribution network for a product (e.g., distribution centers and (optionally) their related remote warehouses that stock a given item number)
• Establish multiple distribution centers
• Establish a common part or product for multiple distribution centers
• Establish and plan a regional distribution center to act as the control point for other distribution center activities (e.g., remote warehouses)
• Define the following data for a part as specific to a distribution center:
• Lead time – packing and shipping
• Order point quantity
• Safety stock
• Frequency restrictions
• Order policy
• Unit sales forecast
• Availabletopromise
• Units of measure
• Process availabletopromise information for every product specific to a distribution center.

Inventory Control – Material Control

• Perform global cost increases by product category as well as unitbyunit changes
• Ability for part number to change via transfer order
• Ability for part cost to change via transfer order with proper cost accounting transactions automatically recorded
• Process transfer order shipments, receipts and quantity intransit adjustments
• Track and control the movement of material from one point in the distribution network (including plants) to another via a transfer order. Transfer orders require a shipping transaction at the sending location and a receiving transaction at the destination location.
• Determine onhand balance (quantity of finished goods available to ship) for the following:
• Each remote warehouse within each distribution center
• Each distribution center summarized
• All distribution centers summarized
• Accumulate monthtodate and yeartodate shipments by:
• Item summarized
• Item and distribution center
• Item and warehouse (remote)
• Maintain the date of the last shipment by distribution center
• Track back ordered items by distribution center and remote warehouse
• Maintain inventory data for several warehouses, and several bay locations within a warehouse for the same item.
• Transfer material within a warehouse, utilizing the same part (finished goods) number
• Automatically total the number of units in multiple locations within a warehouse and show both the number of units by location and total number of a specified item within a warehouse
• Maintain inventories for multiple remote site warehouses for finished goods
• Consolidate multiple locations' data to determine total available units to ship
• Consolidate multiple warehouses' data to determine total available units to ship
• Determine when every order is due to arrive in stock:
• Manufacturing orders
• Purchase orders
• Transfer orders
• Maintain inventory value on:
• FIFO basis
• LIFO basis
• Average cost basis
• Standard cost basis
• Maintain inventory by condition/grade (e.g., salvage vs. quality grade)
• Maintain committed/allocated quantity information by warehouse
• Maintain a cost effective personal computer or minicomputerbased order entry and inventory control subsystem at a remote location which can upload information to the main system on a daily basis and has local report printing capability
• Maintain onorder both sales order and intransit information by warehouse
• Maintain a reorder point and recommend order quantity in the inventory master file(s) by warehouse
• Ability for a transaction type or description to be included in all warehouse inventory adjustment transactions. The transaction types should have the designate General Ledger account distribution and update the General Ledger accordingly.
• Accumulate monthtodate and yeartodate inventory transfers by:
• Item summarized
• Item and distribution center
• Item and warehouse (remote)
• Update remote warehouse finished goods inventories upon record of order shipment processed at a central location by:
• Online real time update
• Batch update
• Dual entry of transaction
• Update remote warehouse finished goods inventories upon record of order shipment processed at a central location by:
• Online real time update
• Batch update
• Dual entry of transaction (order entry and warehouse shipment)
• Receive a material quantity into inventory based on the calculation of a sample of the material size/weight and the total shipment load size/weight
• Maintain inventory control and report on returnable items such as drums, containers, pallets, etc. by:
• Plant
• Distribution center
• Remote warehouse
• Track and control inventory at contract warehouses
• Maintain average intransit lead times between each warehouse
• Maintain management policies for stocking levels of products by:
• Distribution center
• Warehouse (remote)
• Report on the value and age of inventory at all levels of warehouse, including labeled and unlabeled products
• Provide "order action" reports to trigger warehouse, case quantity replenishments based on targeted stock levels, in-transit lead times and future forecasted usage rates
• Track and control consigned inventory in customer warehouses
• Cross reference one item number to another for allowable substitutes
• Maintain the lot integrity for all product lots in finished goods inventory (e.g., lot number, date code)
• Control warehouse inventory by shelflife expiration date by:
• Flagging lots with expired shelflife
• Preventing issue of expired shelflife lots
• Recommending issue of lots with least shelflife time remaining (e.g., FIFO issue)
• Providing reporting on lots soon to exceed shelflife
• View the status of all intransit materials:
• Contractor/vendor to warehouse
• Distribution center to remote warehouse
• Warehouse to customer
• Warehouse to manufacturing facility
• Plant to warehouse
• Automatically convert from packaging codes, model or catalogue numbers (for order entry) to plant or warehouse finished goods, inventory part numbers and quantities
• Automatically convert from finished goods part number to catalogue, model or packing code number
• Utilize bar coding for the recording of all inventory issue and receipt transactions
• Tie multiple warehouses into a "master" finished goods inventory system to view total company finished goods availability
• Restrict one warehouse location from entering transactions that affect inventory records at another
• Display online the following information by warehouse:
• Quantity on-hand
• Quantity available for shipment
• Quantity in Receiving
• Quantity in Receiving Inspection by location
• Quantity in-transit (totals)
• Quantity in-transit (to/from a specific warehouse)
• Quantity allocated to customer sales order
• Quantity allocated to transfer order
• Ship finished goods to a specific sales order:
• Partial shipment to sales order
• Full shipment to sales order
• Multiple sales orders per shipment (pooled orders)
• Ability for all distribution sites to back order items
• Track the following in inventory:
• Customer service returns (in warranty and nonwarranty repairs for return)
• Consigned materials at subcontractors
• Material returned to subcontractors
• Maintain a monthrolling history of shipments in units and dollars. History should include monthbymonth, monthtodate, quartertodate, and yeartodate shipments by item within each warehouse, as well as similar figures for the previous year.

Distribution Planning Simulation

• Simulate how changes in the MPS will affect meeting the distribution demand for each product at each distribution center
• Simulate the distribution network and/or distribution planning scenario for the following:
• Different distribution networks
• Customer service levels
• Different sales patterns
• New product introduction
• Product discontinuance/obsolescence
• Different modes of transportation
• Cost reduction
• Promotions
• Simulate financial planning scenarios as it relates to predicting:
• Inventory investment by location
• Transportation costs to the DCs
• Warehouse space requirements
• Labor requirements and equipment needs for DCs
• Simulate distribution requirements for large customer orders and promotions to determine the point of overloading the shipping, receiving and transportation network that is filling the normal customer orders
• Simulate different warehouse/distribution networks for costing analysis
• Simulate different modes of transportation per shipment or per warehouse.

Distribution Planning

• Plan receipts of goods from a vendor/contractor at either the central or the remote warehouse and have this data incorporated into the planning function
• Generate a Distribution Requirements plan using the following:
• Regenerative mode
• Net change mode
• Plan safety stock at the warehouse level for any finished goods item
• Plan safety stock at a center supply center (distribution center) level for any finished goods item
• Reschedule orders to match unsatisfied demand a given distribution point
• Create the order shipment schedule based on assigned customer order priorities
• Calculate timephased demand for a specific item or assembly specific to a distribution center or plant:
• Fixed lead time capabilities
• Variable lead time capabilities (per unit)
• Use pegging to find the source of the demands for an item by date and quantity and customer order
• View distribution demands for each product at each distribution center
• Incorporate promotions and large customer orders in distribution plan, and provide methods of smoothing the expected production load
• Report on the obsolescence of items with short life cycles to prevent continued replanning; for example, exception report (action message) indicating items with no orders for a specified number of weeks
• Process back orders in the distribution requirements plan
• Schedule production runs based on marketing requirements, raw materials availability and manufacturing capacity
• Utilize firmplanned orders in:
• Distribution requirements planning
• Planning transportation scheduling and loading
• Utilize firm planned orders in distribution to allow for stock buildups (e.g., for use in seasonal product sales)
• Perform DRP netting calculations on the basis of perpetual inventory records and gross requirements, planned, firmplanned and released order status
• Consider warehouse capacity limitations in material/distribution requirements planning
• Relate stock replenishment requirements at one level (remote warehouse) as future requirements at the next supply level (central warehouse)
• Ability of the shop calendars and leadtime backoff logic to allow for the following:
• Variable number of days per week
• Holiday and shutdown days
• Exclude specified warehouse locations from onhand inventory (e.g., spoiled or obsolete items) when calculating the distribution requirements plan
• Prioritize demand or customer orders in a userrequested sequence
• Utilize intransit lead times in distribution planning logic:
• Contractor to central warehouse
• Central warehouse to remote warehouse
• Plant to remote warehouse
• Accept input from:
• Master production schedule
• Transfer orders
• Sales orders – central and remote
• Remote distribution/sales requirements forecast
• Inventory control
• Compare projected future demands to inventory availability, including safety stocks, in order to predict future shortages (netting)
• Incorporate offlots and nonpalletized loads into distribution planning system (e.g., samples, inventory remnants, etc.)
• Consolidate multiple independent demand forecasts (e.g., remote warehouse locations) for central planning purposes.

Transportation Analysis

• Simulate transportation loading and scheduling to achieve savings and timely deliveries by the following:
• Determining optimal order pooling mix in order to take advantage of freight charge breaks and achieve the best fill rate
• Determining optimal ship dates to take advantage of freight charge breaks and achieve the best delivery time
• Determining best carrier and route to obtain best freight charge rate and delivery time
• Generate a shipment report that provides approved transfer quantities by item grouped by priority within shipping route
• Plan total warehouse space requirements by location through the generation of a projected onhand balance times space per product
• Inquire into multiple warehouses to determine finished goods shipping capacity (e.g., maximum dock space, fill rate, etc.)
• Maintain transportation cost data, (e.g., transportation rate, weight and cube) for transportation planning
• Perform capacity requirements planning for the following:
• Loading and unloading freight
• Picking orders
• Perform freight analysis by freight carrier within a distribution center
• Input multiple methods/costs of shipment for an end item from each distribution center
• Establish freight budgets
• Process the following transportation data to calculate full vehicle load quantities:
• Item pallet size
• Item weight
• Item cube
• Shipment method
• Vehicle size.

Reports

• Stock Status Report – Indicates on-hand quantity, unit costs and extended values for a given warehouse by:
• Item number
• Product line
• Product type
• Packaging code (model number)
• Location
• Condition/grade
• Freight Analysis Report – Printed as required, this report shows the freight costs per shipment, as computed for specified finished goods or production contractor shipment. Data includes order number, mode of shipment, dollar value and date
• Obsolete/Slow Moving Item Report – Printed as required. This report shows all items with no activity after a predetermined date or within the last days for a given warehouse or distribution center
• Daily Shipping Report - Lists by units and dollars the shipments for the current day for a given warehouse by:
• Item number
• Product line
• Product type
• Packaging code
• Location
• Customer
• Sales representative
• Inventory Location Report – Printed as required by item number, shows all detailed location (and warehouses) with that item number, the quantity at each and a quantity summary
• Shipping Summary – Printed daily or as required, with same data as Daily Shipping Report but summarizing shipments by:
• Distribution center
• Warehouse
• Sales representative
• Customer
• Product line
• Product
• Location Status – Printed as required in location sequence. Lists the items (in item sequence) at that location together with quantity of each item
• InTransit Report – Printed daily, shows the detail status (by shipment) of all materials in-transit between (report must include total time the shipment has been in-transit):
• Contractor/vendor and warehouse receiving
• Distribution center and remote warehouse
• Warehouse and specified customer
• Manufacturing facility and distribution center
• Manufacturing facility and remote warehouse
• Contractor/vendor and customer
• Shippers – Printed upon request for a specified date, range of dates, item, order number or range of orders. Should also show all orders not invoiced
• Transportation Planning Report – Printed upon request for a specified item, order number, range of orders or warehouse, detailing data on items to be transported. Data includes planned date, item number, quantity to transport, order type, weight, cube, pallets and freight costs
• Transportation Costs Budget Report – Printed monthly by warehouse or specified item, details total expected costs of transportation per item and warehouse. Data includes warehouse, pallets, weight, cube and freight costs
• In-Transit Analysis Report – Printed daily by estimated arrival date of shipment showing the ship date, ETA, days-in-transit, shipments beyond ETA and shipment information to determine in-transit shipments that require action
• Warehouse Requirements Report – Printed upon demand, this report details the shipping requirements of a specified warehouse by product, units and destination
• Distribution Requirements Report – Printed upon demand, detailing the final goods requirements by part number and by warehouse. This report shows requirements in two formats by:
• Date and range of dates (unbucketed)
• Planning period (bucketed)
• Exception Reporting – Printed upon demand, showing the following:
• Outofstocks
• Excess stock situations
• Cancelling existing orders
• Low inventory positions
• Insufficient inventory OH for distribution at the distribution center
• Action Messages – Printed upon demand, shows:
• Planned shipments to the distribution center
• Order quantity is too large
• On-hand balance is below safety stock, etc.
• Planned transfer to remote warehouse from distribution center
• Finished Goods Status Report – Printed in item number sequence by product group by product category, indicates onhand quantity, unit costs and extended values by:
• Warehouse
• Distribution center (summarized by warehouse)
• All distribution centers
• Inventory Transaction Report – Printed at the end of each period by item number, by transaction type, by location, to provide a reconciliation between the onhand balance at the beginning of the month and end of month and an audit trail of transactions
• Inventory Master File Listing – Printed as required, shows the contents of the inventory master file records by warehouse
• Weekly Need-to-Order Report – For reorder point planned items, listed by warehouse by part number items that have fallen below their reorder point. Also shows intransit lead time and suggested economic order quantity
• Weekly Not-to-Transfer Report – For items on planned transfer orders, this report indicates which ones can safely be de-expedited and/or transfer orders cancelled
• Zone Replenishment Report – Small quantities of each inventory item are maintained in part number sequence in a specified zone to facilitate picking of small orders. This report indicates the quantities needed to replenish this area based on reorder points or daily activity.
• Warehouse Daily Exception Report - Lists a variety of status information for unplanned shipments unplanned receipts, cycle count activity, price exceptions, order adjustments, and Shipping/Receiving quantity count differences
• Transfer Order Status Reports – Printed as required, shows all information regarding components and processing for each transfer order number
• Monthly Inventory Movement Report – This report lists both for shipments and receipts, all transactions by GL account number, by part number, the date issued standard unit cost and extended standard cost. This report is sequenced by warehouse number.

Interfaces

• Distribution Network Relationships File – Provides information on plant, distribution center and warehouse relationships, as well as supply and demand relationships for materials planning
• Inventory Control – The Material and Distribution Requirements Planning application is dependent on inputs from the Inventory Control application or an accurate current inventory status and part information such as lead times
• Distribution/Shipping – Provides information for customer shipments, transfers and freight processing out of each warehouse
• Shop Floor Control – Provides information regarding work order status including final assembly
• Sales Order Entry – Provides information on all sales order, customer shipment, and due date requirements
• Forecasting/Master Production Schedule – Provides distribution demand data.