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An action message is a system-generated suggestion to change an existing planned, approved, or firmed order.
The master planning calculation generates action messages in response to changed requirements. For example, when you change the ship date or quantity on a sales order after you already create a purchase order to fulfill the demand for that sales order. In this case, the master planning calculation generates one or more action messages that suggest that you update the purchase order. You decide whether to make the suggested changes.
You can set up how action messages are calculated for a coverage group that you attach to an item.
Note
The system only creates action messages for unapproved planned orders while they're within the freeze time fence. Outside of the freeze time fence, the system only creates action messages for approved planned orders and firmed orders.
Select action messages
On the Coverage groups page, select the action messages that you want the system to generate, and the coverage groups or items that the messages apply to. The following table lists the action messages that you can select.
| Message | Description |
|---|---|
| Advance | The system generates action messages, as needed, to move orders to an earlier date. In the Advance margin field, specify the maximum number of days that can pass between a receipt and an issue without an advance action. |
| Postpone | The system generates action messages, as needed, to move orders to a later date. In the Postpone margin field, specify the maximum number of days that can pass between a receipt and an issue without a postpone action. |
| Decrease | The system generates action messages when production orders, purchase orders, and other receipt transactions should be decreased to prevent excess inventory levels. |
| Increase | The system generates action messages when production orders, purchase orders, and other receipt transactions should be increased to prevent shortages in inventory. |
| Derived actions | The system propagates action messages that it creates for receipt transactions to any derived requirements, and it generates the necessary action messages for the receipt transactions that satisfy those requirements. |
The following sections provide a few detailed scenarios.
Increase and decrease actions with product default order quantities
On the Default order settings page for an item, you can set up a minimum order quantity, maximum order quantity, and multiple values. The system takes these settings into account when it suggests actions, to ensure that the suggestions never cause undersupply.
For example, you have an item that has the following settings on its Default order settings page:
- Minimum order quantity: 0
- Maximum order quantity: 90
- Multiple: 20
If there's demand for a quantity of 60 of this item, master planning creates a planned purchase order for a quantity of 60. If you increase the demand by 30, master planning suggests an increase of 40, because it respects the multiple of 20 and never causes undersupply.
Action messages for orders related to safety stock
Action messages for orders that supply safety stock never suggest decreasing the quantity below the quantity that's needed for the safety stock. In other words, if there's an order that supplies safety stock and customer demand, and you decrease or cancel the demand, master planning suggests decreasing the planned order by the decreased demand. However, it never suggests a value that is lower than the safety stock that is needed.
The system doesn't suggest postponing actions for supplying safety stock, because it's assumed that the safety stock must be supplied at the required time and on the required date.
Advance and postpone actions related to BOMs
You must apply actions related to components of bills of material (BOMs) before the actions of their parent items. If you don't, further orders that are related to higher-level BOMs might be affected. Then, run master planning again to recalculate and suggest appropriate actions.
For example, consider the following situation:
- Final good FG of type production has a BOM that includes raw material RM.
- Today's date is January 21.
- An existing, released production order for FG is scheduled for January 25.
- To support the existing production order, master planning creates a planned purchase order for the required raw material RM. This order has a requirement date of January 25.
- A new sales order for FG is created today. It has a requirement date of today (January 21).
- January 21 is closed for delivery on the RM calendar, but January 22 is open.
When you run master planning, it generates advance action messages that suggest moving up the previously scheduled production so that you can fulfill today's order.
- To meet the new demand, it suggests moving the production order for FG up to January 21. (It makes this suggestion without considering the closed date for RM.)
- Because RM is still required for the production order, it suggests moving up the planned purchase order too. However, this time, it checks the RM calendar. Therefore, it suggests moving the planned purchase order for RM to January 22 (because January 21 is closed).
As you can see, the required raw material RM arrives too late for the scheduled production of FG. Therefore, you must first apply the advance action to the planned purchase order for RM and then run master planning again. At that point, master planning generates a new action message that suggests moving the production order for FG to January 22.