Package for MRP prioritization wins APICS' Innovation award
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 1/1/2004 12:00:00 AM MST
The Innovation award at this year's APICS conference went to Systems Plus, a small software vendor that sells an add-on to existing MRP systems that helps get orders out on time.
OTTO (On-Time Orders) extracts information from legacy systems into a separate data warehouse. There, it runs a procedure that tags every activity directly to the top-level demand—i.e., the end product customer order or firm planned order. The detailed, actionable information that results tells buyers, supervisors, and schedulers what needs to be done to ship an order.
"It keeps production focused on the few things that have to happen as the ship date approaches," says Roy Hackett, plant manager, Shenandoah Manufacturing, Harrisonburg, Va. "Components that have potential for delaying an order are identified so they can be managed."
OTTO eliminates the traditional "pegging" required to sort through a mix of orders and action messages. With traditional MRP, tracing the source of an order or requirement involves repeated inquiries, following the demand level-by-level up through the bill of material and matching dates and quantities.
One type OTTO inquiry shows all potential problems at all levels of the bills that might delay order shipment. Another shows expected purchase receipts, but only those that impact near-term customer commitments.
Shenandoah attributes 40-percent improved on-time shipping achieved in less than a month—and a 50-percent lead-time reduction—to OTTO.
"Guessing at what and how much current work is for real customer orders versus planned orders is eliminated," concludes Hackett.
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