I am building to order and buying to forecast. I have 4 weekly buckets, and 2 monthly buckets

End Item A consists of purchased component B. Lets say I the following a forecast for item A:

WEEk1 WEEK2 WEEK3 WEEk4 MONTH MONTH
10 20 30 40 100 200

For Item A, I have a forecast time fence of 2 weeks.

So, when I generate MRP I will get a planned order for 30 on the last day of week3, an order or 40 on the last day of week 4, an order for 100 on the last day of month1, and an order for 200 on the last day of month2.

The problem here is (for example) week 3...I will build 30 by the last day of week 3....but the forecast I entered says that I need 30 throughout the entire week...not by the last day. This
causes late shipments

My lead time for Part B is 2 weeks, so when I generate MRP for Item B I will get the planned orders:

a planned order for 30 on the last day of weeks, an order or 40 on the last day of week 4, an order for 100 on the last day of month1, and an order for 200 on the last day of month2.

Again, for the order for 30 due to start 2 weeks before the last day of week 3, this means item B will be scheduled to arrive the last day of week 3...when I need it to arrive the first day of week 3 to supply Item A's production throughout the week....

How can I solve this? Basically what I am trying to do is change the requirement day to the FIRST day of each bucket, instead of the LAST

Not sure if this helps, but from what you have described it sounds like item A has a zero lead time. With a zero leadtime on A the system would plan on B on the date A was due to be shipped. Is Baan planning the release of A correctly?

As I recall it from working on our system when we lay in a MS for a delivery of A(using your scenario), the system plans to release A on monday with a 5 day lead time and thus B would have to be purchased 2 weeks before the release of item A. Does your build item A have a lead time? It seems like in the forecast build item A has zero lead time.

Please excuse me if I have over simplified things or I mis-understood. I am more of a technical person than a manufacturing functional expert. So I think that makes me kind of dangerous - at least when trying to answer a functional question. :)

Maybe another question I need to ask is "How are you forecasting in Baan?". At our company we have a separate simulation company. Every month it is refreshed from our production company and a new forecast(or simulated) schedule is loaded. Currently we are using it more for capacity planning and budgeting. Material $ is the next piece that I will be working on.

Just trying to help.

Mark

Amplifying on the last poster. Are you delivering the parts to step one of your routings and releasing the orders to start on Monday?

Thanks for the replys. Sorry it hasd taken me a while to get back..

Anyway, hopefully this answers your quesiotns:

Item A does in fact have a 1 day lead time. The bulk of the lead time is the subassembly that goes into item A, we'll call it item Z. This item has a 2-4 day lead time, depending on the item & quantity.

It sounds as thoug, since MRP is not generating your orders (your forecast is), tat you will have to start moving your forecasts up one week. The forecast demand is only requiring the item at the end of the period for which it is forecasted. In that case you will need to forecast it for the week before so it will be available on Monday of the demand week.