Concepts¶
This is a high level glossary of all the concepts in Puls8 Replan.
Plan¶
A Plan is the detail of what SKU or product to produce on each resource, based on the constraints profile selected. The outputs are visualised based on Inventory, Service Levels, Capacity and Schedule.
Scenario¶
A scenario is a set of inputs for SKUs, Groups, Resources(Lines) used to make a plan. A planner uses these inputs and a constraint profile to make a Plan.
SKU¶
A SKU(Stock Keeping Unit) represents any physical material that is used in planning, whether it is a raw material, finished good or intermediate good.
Raw Material¶
Raw Materials are the SKUs or ingredients that are used to make a finished or intermediate good.
Finished Good¶
A SKU that is the final product that there is demand for from customers.
Intermediate Good¶
A SKU that is created in one of the steps in creating a finished good. These are created in multilevel production processes.
Resource¶
A Resource is anything used in the production of products. Puls8 Replan allows planners to model different types of resources
- Lines - Production lines where production of goods happen. Lines are the primary resource for all plans.
- Equipment - Secondary piece of equipment also used in a production step.
- Labour - Labour used on the production lines.
- Utilities - Any utility used in production of goods.
- Emissions - Units of any emission used in production e.g. CO2
- Warehouse - Units of warehouse space used to store goods.
Production Method¶
A production method is a schedulable task that has the input requirements, run rates, lot sizes and outputs for a product on a resource.
Run Rate¶
This represents the throughput of a SKU on the line (X units/hour).
It is possible to include a Priority Cost Factor per product, which enables the model to favour production of one product group on a specific line. This is also important where a product group can be produced across one or more lines within the factory as the model favours the line with a cheaper priority cost.
Changeovers¶
Changeovers sets out the cost and time for moving between two different SKUs on a specific line.
Group¶
A Group is a aggregation of SKUs. Each group has a unique name, maximum stock coverage, minimum safety stock and minimum lot size for each group.
Downtime Pattern¶
Downtime patterns are associated with production lines. A simple example is shut down line 1 every Monday from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.
Line Cleaning¶
Line cleaning is where production on a line is halted to allow for cleaning on a line. This is different from changeovers in that certain products require lines to be cleaned when a certain amount of the product has been produced on the line. Line cleaning is a type of downtime pattern.
CIP¶
CIP or Cleaning in Progress allows a planner to specify a cleaning interval when a SKU has hit a certain amount or duration on a line. This is specified in the production method for a SKU.
Horizon¶
A planning horizon is used to specify a consistent planning window, e.g. S&OE Horizon is 13 weekly periods.
Line Capacity¶
For each line being modelled, this is the capacity in units (hours) for each period.
Demand Forecast¶
This is the demand forecast for the next number of periods of production per individual product or SKU.
Raw Material Availability¶
This is a forecast of expected raw materials deliveries.
Opening Stock¶
The stock on hand at the start of a planning period for a plan.
Stock Boundaries¶
Max Stock: This is the maximum permitted units of stock on hand for a SKU for a period.
Safety Stock: This is the minimum permitted units of stock on hand for a SKU for a period.
Target Stock: This is the units of stock to aim at for a SKU per period.
Frozen Horizon¶
A Planner can specify a Frozen Horizon per product, which is defined as X periods. The solver will use the values set in the frozen horizon periods supplied.
Shelf Life¶
A Planner can specify a Shelf Life per SKU, which is defined as X periods. The solver will only produce a SKU if it can be delivered before the shelf life expires.
Constraints¶
Constraints set limitations on how to produce outputs e.g. a capacity constraint.
The solver has both hard and soft constraints. The solver will attempt to eliminate all hard constraint violations first before minimising soft constraint violations.
Constraint Profiles¶
Constraint profiles are a set of constraint configurations that can be reused across plans.
Cloning a Plan¶
Cloning a plan allows a planner to quickly copy an existing plan to test changes to inputs. e.g. what if I shut down line 2 in week 32 for maintenance?
Line Offloading¶
Line Offloading is where a product or group is produced on more than one line. It is produced on a primary line first until it can no longer meet demand, after that it offloads production onto one or more other lines. Each line has different associated changeovers and runrates for the products/groups.
Co Production¶
Co Production is when certain production methods produce more than one product when scheduled on a resource. For example, 1 ONION_BATCH will produce 70% CLASS_A_ONION and 30% CLASS_B_ONION.
Weighting¶
Weighting is where you can apply a weighting to a particular SKU or group, in order to allocate more production time to it, versus other SKUs or groups.
Multilevel Planning¶
Multilevel planning means there are multiple levels in the SKUs that are being produced. Some production methods produce inputs that are used as an intermediate good for one or more finished goods.
Connectors¶
Connectors connect to ERP systems to load scenario data and also push back solutions into that ERP e.g. there is a SAP IBP connector to pull inputs and push plans back to IBP.