Introduction
Material Planners are the Inventory bound counterparts to Capacity Planners. Where a Capacity Planner’s work centers around balancing incoming demand for product with the number of available capacity hours that can be used to perform work, Material Planners also deal with incoming demand, but from a different angle. Instead of capacity, the Material Planner is charged with ensuring that the release and procurement of Materials is in sync to meet that incoming demand.
Key Concept
Material Planners often require the same visibility that Capacity Planners do, but from the perspective of how it affects inventory levels. Releasing Materials early may result in a material shortage later, and the Material Planner must track the safety stock of every item in the master list. Being able to see the supply and demand information for any item, track how and when it will be consumed and by which Jobs or production orders are all concerns of a Material Planner. APS provides an Inventory Plan that shows the Material Planner on-hand quantities, safety stock levels, and color-coded warnings that are triggered not only by shortages, but also by items that are above their max inventory levels.
APS aims to fill a crucial gap in MRP, in the sense that while MRP produces a master production plan to satisfy demand, MRP historically was not capacity constrained and assumed infinite capacity. While Finite Capacity Planning is a large aspect of what APS does, it also balances Capacity Planning with material availability and provides the necessary tools for Material Planners to collaborate with other planners to ensure that the manufacturer does not suffer from material shortages or material release bottlenecks.
Additionally, APS is capable of its own lightweight MRP functionality, which will automatically create production orders to satisfy demand while simultaneously scheduling them within finite capacity constraints.