Dear all,

We are planning the production and purchases with MRP, that means all of our finished and planning items are MRP-items. Now we are preparing to move to MPS planning. In relation to this we would like to know are there any issues, risks, procedures, guides that could be of any help. Is there something that we should keep in mind?
Our system is operational for a couple of years and we would like a smooth migration without major disturbances and consequences.

Regards
Peter Kozlev

Dear Peter,

From IT (Baan) perspective there is virtually no risks involved.
But before going from MRP to MPS you should carefully consider whether the planning & production processes are aligned towards MPS. In my opinion there are major differences between producing based on orders (MRP) or based (at least partially) on forecasts (MPS). Especially your planning processes should be designed well and in place before migration. Which version of Baan are you using? I´ve written a MPS manual for Baan IV.
Good luck, if you need any advice just email me
Marc

Hello,

In my opinion you should first create a testing environment (e.g. a copy of the current environment) if possible. The parameter settings and the resulting output can be verry unpredictable for some users (seen it at some sites). If they don't understand the concepts (APICS-CPIM is a nice basis) the chance of succes is small.
I also thought that there where some patches available for MPS.

Good luck!

Move slowly.........

the previous comments are correct, do it in test first, be aware of your item data settings and move slowly.

If you no longer understand the planning results in test go backwards until you do.

simple is best till you get familiar with it....

s

Be aware of several more things.
1) End items are usually MPS items.
2) You may have items which are sold on the after market and/or are critical to MPS, they should be MPS defined.
3) In the BOM structure, you may have an MPS item under an MPS item, but you may not have an MRP or SIC item in between these MPS items.
4) MPS creates a plan for items, MRP creates planned orders of items.