Planning levers are part of IFS/Material Planning Simulation and can be applied to MRP simulations, Master Scheduling simulations, and PMRP simulations. A planning lever lets you control key planning parameters in material planning simulations. It is a named, reusable set of simulation parameter values, defined per inventory part for a site or for a planning network. When a simulation is executed with a planning lever, the simulation values on the lever override the corresponding live planning parameters for the included parts, for that simulation run. Live inventory part planning data is never changed.
Planning levers make it possible to answer questions such as What happens if safety stock is reduced? What if the lot sizing method changes? What if the part is purchased from a different supplier? without changing the live plan. A planning lever is applied only when a simulation run for a Material Planning Scenario other than scenario 1 explicitly selects it. Scenario 1, the live execution scenario, never uses planning levers.
There are two kinds of planning levers:
The two kinds cannot be combined in one simulation run. A site simulation uses only a site planning lever, and a planning network simulation uses only a network planning lever. A lever of the wrong kind is ignored without an error message, and the simulation runs with unchanged planning values.
For each part included in a site planning lever, the lever can override the following planning parameters:
If a simulation value is left blank, the corresponding live value is used. There is no separate enablement setting for individual parameters. To stop overriding a parameter, clear its simulation value. Each part row also has an Include in Simulation toggle. Only parts with this toggle enabled participate when the lever is applied; a part row that exists on the lever but is not included has no effect on the simulation.
Manufacturing lead time cannot be overridden by a planning lever. Purchasing lead time can be changed indirectly: when a simulation primary supplier is specified and differs from the live primary supplier, the purchasing lead time of the simulation supplier is used for parts whose lead time is based on the purchasing lead time.
Not every simulation value applies to every planning engine. In a Master Scheduling simulation, the simulation setup cost and the simulation carry rate are not applied, because Master Scheduling does not support the cost-based lot sizing methods that use them, and the simulation order cover time is not applied either.
Overriding the planning method lets you evaluate a part under an entirely different planning behavior without changing anything in the live plan.
For DDMRP planned parts, this makes it possible to evaluate a buffered part as an ordinary MRP planned part. A part with planning method H can be given any simulation planning method that is planned by MRP, for example A or G, so you can compare how the part behaves when it is planned by MRP instead of by its DDMRP buffer.
Overriding the planning method also makes it possible to simulate parts that are not planned by MRP, that is, parts with planning method B, C, or N on the Inventory Part Planning Data page. By adding such a part to a planning lever and entering a simulation planning method that is planned by MRP, the part is included in an MRP simulation that uses Live Snapshot or Live Snapshot with Additional Demands as the Simulation Source, and is planned using the simulated planning method, while its live planning data remains unchanged. This shows what MRP would propose for a part that live MRP does not plan. This is not possible with the Simulation Profile source, because a part that live MRP does not plan has no supply, demand, and planning parameter results imported in the simulation profile.
On the Inventory Part Planning Levers - Site page, the current live planning values are displayed next to the simulation values for each part. Separate indicator columns, such as Planning Method Changed and Safety Stock Changed, show for each parameter whether the simulation value differs from the live value, making it easy to see exactly what a lever changes.
A planning lever is applied one part at a time, and the simulation records the lever for each part it was applied to, in the Planning Lever field on the result pages. The field is blank when the simulation ran without a planning lever, and also when the part was not included in the lever that was used, either because the part was not added to the lever or because its Include in Simulation toggle was not enabled.
A planning lever is selected when a simulation is started:
The same planning lever can be reused across many simulation runs and scenarios. Because the lever overrides planning parameters at the start of the run, simulations executed with different levers against the same simulation profile provide a repeatable way to compare the effect of alternative planning parameter setups.
In general, simulation values follow the same validation rules as the corresponding live values on the Inventory Part Planning Data page.