Capability Check

The capability check is an order delivery estimate based upon an organization's constraints. It is an advanced order promising engine which primarily verifies whether a requested delivery date for a customer order or sales quotation line can be fulfilled or not. If the requested delivery date cannot be fulfilled, a new possible delivery date is calculated. The capability check considers available stock and open supplies, and optionally the available capacity after deducting already planned workload on finite work centers and labor classes. It handles both single and multi-level product structures as well as single and multi-site setups.

The capability check is not just a check; optionally it enables saving interim orders to hold material as well as capacity. This way, the chances of fulfilling the delivery date as planned increases significantly.

The capability check is primarily designed for make-to-order and configure-to-order operations.

Parameters Affecting the Capability Check

Below settings and parameters impact the capability check calculation:

Start Capability Check

To run the capability check, below prerequisites must be fulfilled:

The capability check can be started either automatically or manually. If the inventory part linked to the sales part has Capability Check set to either Reserve and Allocate, Allocate only or Neither Reserve nor Allocate, the capability check is automatically started with the selected option when a new customer order line with supply code DOP Order, Shop Order or Int Purch Trans/Dir is saved, or an existing line is edited. Capability check cannot be run automatically for a sales quotation line.

If Capability Check is set to No Automatic Capability Check, you must manually start the capability check by selecting the relevant customer or sales quotation line, click Capability Check and then Run Capability Check. In the dialog, select the appropriate option in the Reservation and Allocations drop-down:

Capability Check Algorithm

The capability check consists of three different phases, an initial phase, a planning phase and a final phase. It uses an interim order structure that is built in the initial phase. The planning phase includes three planning steps, but not all steps are necessarily executed. The first planning step contains a netting procedure and evaluates if the requested delivery date on the source customer order/sales quotation line can be fulfilled or not. If the requested delivery date can be fulfilled, the second and third planning steps are skipped. The purpose of the second planning step is to calculate a completion date that is possible to fulfill. In the third planning step, the interim order structure is rescheduled based on this completion date. When the planning phase of the capability check is done, the outcome is saved in the final phase. If the requested delivery date was not possible to fulfill, the completion date is used to set the new delivery date on the source line.

If the entire sales quantity on the source line can be netted from available stock and open supplies during the first planning step, the capability check will be interrupted and reversed. In the picture below, the different phases of the capability check algorithm are visualized.

The sections below describe how the interim order structure that is used in the capability check is built, what happens in each of the three planning steps and how the outcome of the capability check is saved. In addition, detailed information about how an interim order is netted, how an interim order is reserved and allocated, how an interim order is planned and how interim order operations are scheduled is given.

Building an Interim Order Structure

The capability check starts with building an interim order structure for the source customer order/sales quotation line if no interim order structure that is possible to use already exists. The Required Date on the top interim order header will be set to the planned due date needed to fulfill the requested delivery date on the source line. For a non-configured part, the manufacturing structures and routings are used. For a configured part, the configuration attributes specified for the customer order or sales quotation line along with the part’s configured structures and routings are used. The revision used, is the valid revision for the supply date on the current interim order.

When the supply code on the source line is Shop Order, only a single-site, single-level interim order structure is built. A single-level interim order structure means that only interim orders for the topmost part and its components are created. The component interim orders are created without any own components, but with operations. When the supply code is DOP Order or Invent Order, a multi-site, multi-level interim order structure is built. When the supply code is Int Purch Dir or Int Purch Trans, it is the sourcing option defined on the sales part at the supply site that decides how the structure is built. If the sourcing option is Shop Order, only a single-site, single-level interim order structure is built and if the supply code is DOP Order or Inventory Order, a multi-site, multi-level interim order structure is built. This means when there are component parts supplied by other sites, a separate interim order structure is built at the primary supplier site. An interim order structure at a supply site becomes a child to an interim order structure at a demand site. In case a component part to an interim order in the structure has Promise Planned set to Not Promised, the interim order for that component part will be created without any components and operations.

If you have created an interim order structure for the source line before running the capability check (typically for a configured part), the capability check will use this interim order structure, including changes, instead of creating a new. If you are running capability check repeatedly times for the same line, an already existing interim order structure will always be deleted and replaced with a new interim order structure. This means that if you modify an existing interim order structure after running the capability check, and then re-run the capability check, all your changes will be lost.

Planning Step 1: Backwards Planning

The first planning step in the capability check evaluates if the requested delivery date can be fulfilled or not. Starting with the topmost interim order, the interim orders are netted and planned backwards down in the interim order structure from the planned due date needed to fulfill the requested delivery date. This date is the same as the Required Date on the topmost interim order header.

For each interim order in the interim order structure, starting with the topmost interim order, and then going downwards level by level, starting with the interim order with the lowest ID on each level, the following steps are done:

  1. The Scheduled Supply Date is set. For the topmost interim order, it is set to the Required Date on the topmost interim order header. For the child interim orders, it is set to the parent’s Scheduled Start Date.
  2. Netting is done against available stock and open supplies available up to and including the Supply Date. Net Qty is set to the quantity that remains to be supplied. If a quantity is netted, adjusted quantities are propagated downwards to child interim orders. For more information see Netting an Interim Order. Depending on the selected Reservation and Allocation Options, reservations and allocations can be made. For more information see Reserving and Allocating an Interim Order.
  3. The Scheduled Start Date is calculated through backwards planning from the Scheduled Supply Date. For more information see Planning an Interim Order.
  4. The Start Date is set to the same date as the Scheduled Start Date and the Supply Date is set to the same date as the Scheduled Supply Date.

If the topmost interim order has Net Quantity = 0, it means that the entire sales quantity on the source line is available. Then the capability check is interrupted, the interim order structure is removed, and you are informed that there is no need of any capability check since the full quantity can be supplied from inventory.

If all leaf nodes in the interim order structure have a Start Date that is not earlier than the first workday after today’s date according to the site manufacturing calendar, it means that the requested delivery date can be fulfilled, and the planning part of the capability check is done. Else, the capability check continues with the second and third planning steps.

Planning Step 2: Forwards Planning

The second planning step in the capability check calculates a completion date that is possible to fulfill. Starting with the lowest level interim orders with Net Quantity > 0, the interim orders are planned forwards up in the interim order structure from the first workday after today’s date according to the site manufacturing calendar.

For each interim order in the interim order structure with Net Quantity > 0, starting with the lowest level interim orders and then going upwards level by level, starting with the earliest interim order on each level, the following steps are done:

  1. The Scheduled Start Date is set. For the lowest level interim orders with Net Quantity > 0, it is set to the first workday after today’s date. For the parent interim orders, it is set to the child’s latest Scheduled Supply Date.
  2. The Scheduled Supply Date is calculated through forwards planning from the Scheduled Start Date. For more information see Planning an Interim Order.

The result after this step is a possible completion date, that is the same date as the Scheduled Supply Date on the topmost interim order. This date will be later than the Required Date on the top interim order header.

Planning Step 3: Backwards Planning

The third planning step schedules the interim order structure based on the possible completion date that was calculated in previous planning step.

For each interim order in the interim order structure, starting with the topmost interim order, and then going downwards level by level, starting with the interim order with the lowest ID on each level, the following steps are done:

  1. The Scheduled Supply Date is set. For the topmost interim order, it is set to the possible completion date. For the child interim orders, it is set to the parent’s start date.
  2. The Scheduled Start Date is calculated through backwards planning from the Scheduled Supply Date. For more information see Planning an Interim Order.

Saving Outcome

When the planning phase is finished, the outcome from the capability check is saved as a capability check result. Information created during the capability check about the interim orders in the interim order structure is saved to the database. However, the actual interim orders that were created might be deleted. If the Reservation and Allocation Options specified when running the capability check is Neither Reserve nor Allocate, the interim orders are removed and their allocations and load are discarded. Only the topmost interim order header is saved. This means that future capability checks can net from the same stock and open supplies and schedule operations using the same capacity as already used in this capability check. If the Reservation and Allocation Options is either Reserve and Allocate or Allocate only, the interim orders are kept to hold reservations and allocations of available material and, in case Schedule and Create Load for Interim Order Operations is enabled for the site, also available capacity through the generated workload.

The source customer order/sales quotation line is updated. If the requested delivery date is not possible to fulfill, the possible completion date that was calculated in the second planning step is used to set the new Planned Due Date on the source line. Other dates on the line, e.g., the Planned Delivery Date/Time, are calculated forwards based on this new Planned Due Date. The earliest Scheduled Start Date in the interim structure will be set as the Latest Release Date on the source line. This is the date when manufacturing must start, or the first part must be purchased.

The capability check will finally give you a message if the delivery date is changed.Otherwise, you are simply informed that the delivery date can be fulfilled as planned.

Netting an Interim Order

During the first planning step in the capability check, nettings are done for the interim orders in the interim order structure with Promise Planned set to Promised. Netting is dependent on the supply code of the source customer order/sales quotation line.

Netting is done against available stock and open supplies available up to and including the Supply Date of the interim order, without driving the projected quantity negative within the cumulative lead time for manufactured parts and within the expected lead time for purchased parts. The netting occur after the Scheduled Supply Date (used to set the Supply Date) of the interim order has been calculated but before calculating the Scheduled Start Date (used to set the Start Date).The netting procedure starts by analyzing available quantity in three different calculations:

The netting procedure starts by analyzing available quantity in three different calculations:

The sum of the available stock, which is calculated in calculation 1, and the available open supplies, which is calculated in calculation 2, will result in a quantity that in theory could be possible to net. An upper limit for how big quantity that possibly can be netted for the interim order is set by the interim order Supply Qty since the netted quantity cannot be greater than the Supply Qty. This results in the following formula:

However, driving the projected quantity negative within the cumulative lead time for manufactured parts and within the expected lead time for purchased parts is not allowed. Therefore, the lowest ATP, which is calculated in calculation 3 is of high importance. If the lowest ATP is equal to zero or less than zero, it won’t be possible to net any quantity at all. Else if the lowest ATP is less than the sum of available stock and open supplies, it is not possible to net a bigger quantity than the lowest ATP. Else it will be possible to net the sum of available stock and open supplies. Consequently, if the netted quantity is bigger than the lowest ATP, the netted quantity is adjusted according to the following formulas:

If Lowest ATP ≤ 0, use formula:

Else if Lowest ATP < Netted Qty use formula:

The Net Qty, which is the quantity that remains to be supplied for the interim order after netting from existing stock and open supplies, is finally set according to the following formula:

Example:

Assume that an interim order with Supply Qty equal to 10 should be netted and that the expected/cumulative lead time for that interim order part is 6 days. In the picture below, calculation 1 gives the result that the available stock is 4. In calculation 2, the summarized supply up until the Supply Date minus the summarized demands up until the Supply Date results in available open supplies up until the Supply Date equal to 8. This means that the incoming balance is 12 on the Supply Date. That is used in calculation 3, that results in -10, when the lowest ATP beyond the Supply Date but within the cumulative/expected lead time is found after calculating the ATP for each day within the period.

When using the first formula for calculating the net quantity without considering driving the projected quanitity negative the result is 10. See formula:

However, the netted quantity must be adjusted to avoid driving the projected quantity negative. Since the lowest ATP is less than zero, the netted quantity is adjusted to zero. See formula:

This means that the Net Qty will be equal to 10. See formula:

Reserving and Allocating an Interim Order

After the netting procedure, during the first planning step in the capability check, reservations and allocations are done for each interim order in the interim order structure with Promise Planned set to Promised. This is done depending on the Reservation and Allocation Options principle that is used.

Planning an Interim Order

In the planning phase the interim orders in the interim order structure are planned. The first and third planning steps are done using backwards planning while the second planning step uses forwards planning. When backwards planning an interim order, the Scheduled Supply Date is known, and the Scheduled Start Date is calculated. When forwards planning an interim order, the Scheduled Start Date is known, and the Scheduled Supply Date is calculated. The Scheduled Start Date in backwards planning and the Scheduled Supply Date in forwards planning are calculated in different ways depending on whether the interim order part is purchased externally, purchased internally (i.e., for multi-site structures) or manufactured. When the part is manufactured also the site setting Schedule and Create Load for Interim Order Operations and the work center and labor class settings Finite Capacity are of importance.

If the inventory part on the interim order is:

Scheduling Interim Order Operations

During all three planning steps of the capability check, interim order operations are scheduled when Schedule and Create Load for Interim Order Operations is enabled for the site. At the same time as an operation is scheduled, work center and/or labor load is created. The scheduling works similar to how a shop order operation is scheduled, but can also consider the remaining work center and/or labor capacity for each day in order to schedule finite. Whether finite or infinite scheduling is performed is depending on the Finite Capacity settings for the work center, setup labor class and runtime labor class of the operation. When Finite Capacity is enabled the operation will be scheduled according to the remaining capacity for each day after subtracting already existing load. No new overload will be created on individual days and the total load during the scheduled period of the interim order will not be higher than the total available capacity during the same period.

Example 1: Backwards scheduling at finite work center with infinite labor class

In this example an interim order operation is backwards scheduled at a work center with Finite Capacity enabled. The labor class of the operation, which is the same for both setup and runtime, has Finite Capacity disabled. The operation has 2 hours machine setup time, 4 hours labor setup time, 20 hours machine run time and 40 hours labor run time. The available capacity of the work center is 8 hours each day and the available capacity of the labor class is 16 hours each day.

The charts below visualize how work center load is created and scheduled during backwards scheduling from the Scheduled Finish Date at 5:00 PM day 7. Since Finite Capacity only is enabled for the work center, the scheduling is performed according to the remaining work center capacity for each day after subtracting already existing load. Remaining labor class capacity is not considered. The fictive load in the work center load graph illustrates how the already existing overload at day 5 is fictively distributed to an earlier working day, to avoid that the total load gets bigger than the total available capacity during the scheduled period of the interim order operation. If forwards scheduling would have been performed, the existing overload at day 5 would have been fictively distributed to a later working day instead of an earlier. The result of the backwards scheduling is that the Scheduled Start Date of the operation is set to 4:00 PM at day 2. The preceding interim order operation will get a Scheduled Finish Date set to 4:00 PM at day 2, or earlier.

During the backwards scheduling load is also created and scheduled for the labor class. Since Finite Capacity is disabled for the labor class, the labor load is scheduled according to when the machine load was scheduled, without consideration of the remaining labor capacity for each day. How the labor load is created and scheduled is visualized in the charts below.

Example 2: Backwards scheduling at finite work center with finite labor class

In this example an interim order operation is backwards scheduled at a work center with Finite Capacity, similar to previous example, but this time also the labor class of the operation, that is the same for both setup and runtime, has Finite Capacity enabled. The operation has 2 hours machine setup time, 4 hours labor setup time, 20 hours machine run time and 40 hours labor run time. The available capacity of the work center is 8 hours each day and the available capacity of the labor class is 16 hours each day.

The charts below visualize how both work center and labor load are created and scheduled for the operation during backwards scheduling from the Scheduled Finish Date at 5:00 PM day 7. Since Finite Capacity is enabled both for the work center and the labor class, it is not enough to only schedule according to the remaining work center capacity for each day after subtracting already existing load. For each day when there is remaining work center capacity, also the remaining labor class capacity for the day after subtracting already existing load must be considered. By comparing the work center load graph with the labor class load graph, you can see whether the remaining work center or labor class was the limiting factor for each day. E.g., at day 7 the remaining work center capacity was 4, but only 2 machine hours could be scheduled at that day because of the limiting remaining labor class capacity that was only 4 hours. The result of the backwards scheduling is that the Scheduled Start Date of the operation is set to 3:00 PM at day 1, one day earlier than in previous example. The preceding interim order operation will get a Scheduled Finish Date set to 3:00 PM at day 1, or earlier.

Schedule using Advanced Planning Board (APB)

When the capability check calculation has been completed, and a Reservation and Allocation Options was used that saved the interim structure, the interim order operations can be scheduled using IFS/Advanced Planning Board (APB). This allows more advanced scheduling considering finite machine, labor and tool capacity as well as material constraints. When the APB schedule is saved back, the Scheduled Start Date and Scheduled Supply Date of the affected interim orders are updated as well as the Planned Due Date of the source line.

View the Result of a Capability Check

You can analyze the result of a capability check on the Capability Check Result page where the interim order information that was saved during the saving outcome phase of the capability check algorithm is displayed. For more information see activity Analyze Capability Check Result.

When the capability check has been performed with Reservation and Allocation Options set to Reserve and Allocate or Allocate only, and the interim orders have been scheduled (using either APB, or having Schedule and Create Load for Interim Order Operations enabled for the site), the estimated workload is saved. This load appears as Promised or Promised Interim Order and can be analyzed using the Visual Capacity Requirements Planning page.

Note that the load from an interim order operation may be distributed into several segments over multiple days according to the remaining capacity for each day when finite loading has been enabled for the work center or labor class.

Edit a Capability Checked Line

If you change any of the fields that have effects on the dates before the customer order is released or sales quotation line is either lost or converted to customer order, the system will remove the value in the Latest Release Date field, clear the Capability Check indicator and delete the interim structure. Also reservations, allocations and load that potentially were created during the capability check are removed. If the automatic capability check is activated, the system will start a new capability check automatically. The same happens if you change the supply code or the sales quantity.

Create a Customer Order from a Capability Checked Sales Quotation Line

If you create a customer order from a capability checked sales quotation line, the result of the capability check is transferred to the new customer order line. If the customer order is created in the Released status the system behaves as described in Release a Capability Checked Customer Order.

Release a Capability Checked Customer Order

You cannot release a customer order when the Latest Release Date is in the past. The order will remain in status Planned. Instead, you should do a new capability check.

When a capability checked customer order is released and the capability check was performed with Reservation and Allocation Options set to Neither Reserve nor Allocate, the system behaves similar as if no capability check was performed.

If the capability check was performed with Reservation and Allocation Options set to Reserve and Allocate or Allocate only, the interim order structure is deleted when the customer order is released. The supply code will impact the behavior as per below:

When the system creates an internal customer order on the supply site, a capability check is automatically performed on the supply site if the inventory part linked to the sales part on this site has been setup for an automatic capability check. This is recommended since else allocations and reservations will be lost when releasing the customer order on the sales site.

Limitations