Update 19D

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Date	Feature	Notes
20 SEP 2019		Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update, and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.

Security and New Features

The Role section of each feature identifies the security privilege and job role required to use the feature. If feature setup is required, then the Application Implementation Consultant job role is required to perform the setup, unless otherwise indicated. (If a feature doesn't include a Role section, then no security changes are required to use the feature.)

If you have created job roles, then you can use this information to add new privileges to those roles as needed.

Give Us Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

Oracle Cloud Applications delivers new updates every quarter. This means every three months you'll receive new functionality to help you efficiently and effectively manage your business. Some features are delivered Enabled meaning they are immediately available to end users. Other features are delivered Disabled meaning you have to take action to make available. Features delivered Disabled can be activated for end users in a couple of ways:

Access the Opt In page from the New Features Work Area

1. Click the Navigator, and then click New Features (under the My Enterprise heading)
2. On the New Features page, select the offering that includes new features you’d like to review
3. Click Go to Opt In for any feature you want to opt in
4. On the Edit Features page, select the Enable option for the feature, and then click Done

or...  Access the Opt In page from the Setup and Maintenance Work Area

1. Click the Navigator, and then click Setup and Maintenance
2. On the Setup page, select your offering, and then click Change Feature Opt In
3. On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features icon for any area that includes features you want to opt in
4. On the Edit Features page, select the Enable option for any feature you want to opt in to. If the Enable column includes an Edit icon instead of a check box, then click the icon, select your feature options, and click Save and Close. 
5. Click Done.

Opt In Expiration

Occasionally, features delivered Disabled via Opt In may auto enable in a future update. This is known as an Opt In Expiration. If your cloud service has any Opt In Expirations you will see a related tab in this document. Click on that tab to see when the feature was originally delivered Disabled, and when the Opt In will expire, potentially auto enabling the feature. You can also click here to see features with Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications.

Feature Summary

Sales and Operations Planning

Report Dependent Demand for Upstream Organizations

It can be difficult to understand which demands in downstream locations drive upstream supply requirements in a sales and operations plan. In this update, the Dependent Demand measure is enhanced to include downstream demand, providing greater visibility into the balance of total supply and total demand by location. This enhancement helps you optimize inventory levels, improve service levels, and better understand your operating plan.

Watch a Demo

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Watch Report Dependent Demand for Upstream Organizations Readiness Training

Role Information

Users assigned to the following job role will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Sales and Operations Planner (ORA_MSC_SALES_AND_OPERATIONS_PLANNER)

Monitor Late Activities and Tasks in a Planning Cycle

Previously, you could track the due date of an activity or task within the S&OP cycle and its completion status, but not the actual completion date or number of days late.

With this update, you can now track the actual completion date of tasks in the planning cycle dashboard, where all stakeholders can see them. An assignee can also indicate that a task is in progress by setting the task status to the Started status.

You can filter on status to search for tasks that are delayed, and then collaborate with process participants to mitigate any risks. You can export the entire planning cycle activity and task details to a spreadsheet to compare the current planning cycle to previous planning cycles. The comparison results show you which activities and tasks are perennially delayed and need improvement. The results also track your progress over time.

Watch a Demo

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• The Days Late column appears by default after the Status column for all stages, Product Review through Executive Review, in the Planning Activities and Action Items tables, and in the Worklist table in the Overview tab.

• Days Late at activity level is calculated by using the values for the Completion Date and Due Date attributes at the activity level.

• The Completion Date column is hidden by default, but you can add it to display in the Planning Activities and Action Items tables in all stages, Product Review through Executive Review, and in the Worklist table in the Overview tab. You can enable this column by selecting the Completion Date column under View, then Columns.

• It is important to do timely updates to Task and Action Items statuses, especially if the update involves setting the status to Completed because the system date on which the status is set as Completed will be recorded as the Completion Date for that Task and Action Items.

• If you initially set a task to Completed, but then realize that there is something still open about the task, you can change the status back to Started. If you change the status back to started, then the Completion Date will be reset and the Days Late field will be calculated accordingly.

• In the Worklist table in the Overview tab, you can search for Activities or Tasks for all assignees.

• In the Overview tab, Worklist table, you can edit Task and Action Items, but not an Activity.

• You can also export the Worklist to a spreadsheet.

Key Resources

• Watch Monitor Late Activities and Tasks in a Planning Cycle Readiness Training

Role Information

Users assigned to the following job role will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Sales and Operations Planner (ORA_MSC_SALES_AND_OPERATIONS_PLANNER)

Copy a Sales and Operations Plan with All Details

Previously, you could duplicate a Sales and Operations plan, but the copy referenced master data in the existing plan.

Now you can make a standalone copy of a plan with no reference to the original plan. The new plan includes its own copy of all reference data, such as items, bill of resources, resources, and suppliers. Use this new copy to make independent changes to reference data in your new plan without affecting the existing one.

Watch a Demo

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Create a backup copy of your approved Sales and Operations plan with all details at the end of every S&OP planning cycle.

Key Resources

• Watch Copy a Sales and Operations Plan with All Details Readiness Training

Role Information

Users assigned to the following job role will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Sales and Operations Planner (ORA_MSC_SALES_AND_OPERATIONS_PLANNER)

Supply Planning

Consume Forecasts Using Flexible Time Buckets

You may forecast in monthly or weekly buckets, but in some business situations the timing of the sales orders might not exactly align to the forecasting bucket. For example, the sales order that you originally forecasted for month 1 slipped into the first few days of month 2. In this case, you want to forecast consumption window to span month 1 and month 2. You can now specify the backward and forward consumption windows in days, weeks, periods, or months.

The forecast consumption setup has also been streamlined and made accessible in one area of the Plan Options UI. New parameters enable you to:

• Continue using the Supply Network Model past-due fields for selecting past-due demands
• Define the number of past-due buckets for forecast, shipped sales orders, and open sales orders in a plan

You can specify the windows for past-due demands in days, weeks, periods, or months. The added flexibility for defining past-due demands means you no longer need to continually modify the past-due fields in the Supply Network Model to get the current month's past-due demands, for example.

This enhanced ability to fine tune forecast consumption aligns supply and demand to reduce excess inventory or stockout situations.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

If you frequently adjust the past due sales order days or past due forecast days in the Supply Network Model UI prior to running a supply plan to ensure a full week, period or month's past due demands were copied into the plan, you can now use the new past due demand plan options and bypass the need to update the past due demand buckets in the Supply Network Model UI.

Key Resources

• The Consume Forecasts Using Flexible Time Buckets readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Materials Planner (ORA_MSC_MATERIALS_PLANNER)
• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER

Include Postprocessing Lead Time for Manufacturing Items

Delays can occur between the end of a manufacturing process and the availability of an end item for shipping or a component for subsequent assembly. For example, some items need to pass quality control inspections, and others take time to cool or cure. With this update, Oracle Supply Planning Cloud will add this postprocessing lead time when calculating scheduled dates for items that have their Make or Buy attribute set to the Make value in the Oracle Fusion Product Model, and a local sourcing rule of the Make type: 

• For subassemblies, this lead time starts when the make process is complete and ends when the supply can be consumed to make its parent item.
• For end items, postprocessing lead time starts when the final assembly completes and ends when the item can be shipped.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• You can use postprocessing lead times to model a time interval that can include activities like quantity control, curing, certification, loading, and any other preparatory work prior to making items available in inventory.

• For subassemblies, you can use postprocessing lead time to include the time interval between two successive stages of production like cool down time, inspection, and so on.

Key Resources

• The Include Postprocessing Lead Time for Manufacturing Items readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Materials Planner (ORA_MSC_MATERIALS_PLANNER)
• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Constraint-Based Planning

Create and run supply plans that consider material and capacity constraints. Focus on meeting demand on time by evaluating all possible alternatives, such as using different sources, substitute components, or alternative work definitions.

After you opt in to constraint-based planning, you can use the features described in this section.

Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan

A responsive and resilient supply chain design has built-in redundancy in the form of alternative sources of supply or alternative production methods so you can recover from day to day tactical issues such as material and capacity shortages. As the scale and complexity of the enterprise increases, planning systems need to automate decision making to optimally use these alternative sources. This is not possible with a traditional MRP system that relies on the planner to make these decisions.

In this update you can use a new planning mode to automate decisions regarding tactical issues, such as material and capacity shortages, by using alternative source of supply or production methods. You can also reduce the burden of evaluating alternatives to fulfill demand on time. When you create a named plan, you can select the option to evaluate constraints and choose which options are to be evaluated to overcome the constraints.

Use this new constraint-based planning mode to control the trade-off between a longer planning cycle time and the quality of plan that is generated. When you select the option to create a constrained supply plan, resource capacity constraints are evaluated. You can choose whether to evaluate all the resources in your facility, or just the bottleneck resources as designated by you. Additionally, you can choose to include supplier capacity as a constraint to be evaluated.

You can select among the following options to control the scope of search for alternatives to meet demand on time when a constraint is encountered:

• Alternate resources
• Substitute components
• Alternate item structures and work definitions
• Alternate suppliers and source organizations

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Constrained planning respects lead time as a hard constraint.
• Constrained planning prioritizes satisfaction of demand due dates higher than the need to respect resource and supplier capacity constraints. When a capacity constraint exists in constrained supply planning, planning follows a prescribed order.
  • It first prebuilds in earlier time buckets using the primary source of supply.
  • Then selects alternate sources of supply.
  • If no other option is available to fulfill demand on time, then it overloads capacity.
• Constrained planning prioritizes demands in a specific sequence.
  • Sales orders by schedule date
  • Sales orders by request date
  • Sales orders by order value
  • Forecasts by suggested due date
  • Forecasts by order value

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Automatically Evaluate and Select the Alternative to Meet Demand on Time

It is impossible for a human to manually evaluate the millions of possible combinations of supply sources, alternate components or resources, and manufacturing methods to fulfill the demand on time.

Use Oracle Supply Planning Cloud to optimally resolve resource and material capacity constraints. This approach will help select combinations of supply sources and manufacturing methods that will enable the fulfillment of the demand on time. Supply Planning Cloud evaluates alternate sources, alternate work definitions, alternate resources, and substitute components to ensure that supply orders can meet the demand on time, while using on-hand and on-order inventory in the most efficient manner possible.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Constraint-based planning enables a planner to make decisions based on specific business needs. You determine what decisions will be made by the supply planning process by selecting or not selecting the following options:

• Use alternate resources
• Use substitute components
• Use alternate item structure and work definitions
• Use alternate suppliers and source organizations

To access to these option, navigate to the Plan Options page (for a Supply Plan or Demand and Supply Plan) -> Supply tab -> Constraints and Decision Rules. 

Key Resources

• The Automatically Evaluate and Select the Alternative to Meet Demand on Time readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Plan Considering Material Constraints

The time taken to procure and build subassemblies and final assemblies is compressed as necessary by typical MRP planning methods in order to meet demand on time, lead to unrealistic plans. You can use Oracle Supply Planning Cloud in the constrained-based planning mode to ensure lead times are considered as a hard constraint which cannot be compressed to meet demand due dates.

Supply Planning Cloud offsets the search for lower level components and subassemblies taking into consideration manufacturing, supplier, and shipping lead times. In situations where constraints are encountered, the supply plan may suggest rescheduling the order out or building and procuring material ahead of the time it is required. You can set lead times for purchased items as a soft constraint by setting the item attribute Enforce Purchasing Lead Time to No. If you have selected the option to evaluate supplier capacity constraints, supplier capacity is evaluated as a soft constraint with alternate suppliers considered if there is a capacity shortage at the supplier site. Supplier capacities are exceeded if material constraints are not fully resolved.

Incorporating material constraints results in a higher quality plan that you can use as a starting point to refine the results.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• There are two types of material constraints:
  • Lead Time Constraints: These constraints determine how soon new material can be made available if there's insufficient on hand and on-order inventory within the lead time. Planning time fences are also included in this category.
  • Supplier Capacity Constraints: These constraints determine how much new material can be ordered from a supplier in a given time bucket.
• The constrained plan will impose lead time as a hard constraint. Within the lead time, only on-hand inventory and scheduled receipts can be used to satisfy demands.
• Beyond the lead time or planning time fence, new planned orders can be created.
• If there is not sufficient supplier capacity to fulfill demands on time, the supplier capacity of the primary supplier may be overloaded.
• Purchase orders that exist within the planning time fence or lead time of the item can be rescheduled out, but not rescheduled in.
• Purchase orders that exist outside the planning time fence or lead time of the item can be rescheduled in to only the lead time or planning time fence. They can also be rescheduled out.  

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Plan Considering Resource Constraints

Generate a plan where resource capacity is a soft constraint that drives the selection of alternate sources of supply. If a constraint is encountered, the supply plan will generate recommendations, such as using an alternate resource, alternate work definition, or alternate source where resource capacity is available so that the demand can be fulfilled on time. Resource capacity may be overloaded after all these other alternatives have been exhausted.

Typically, not all resources are equally important when a plan is generated. You need to trade off the planning cycle time required for exhaustive constraint evaluation with which subset of constraints are important for you. You configure the resource and supplier capacity constraint evaluation for either all resources or a subset of resources that are marked as bottleneck resources.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Resource constraints are applied based on the plan option Capacity Constrained Resources:
  • All Resources: The plan treats every resource as a potential constrained resource and apply capacity constraints on all resources when calculating the plan output.
  • Bottleneck Resources Only: The plan only treats the resources that have the Bottleneck indicator set to Yes as capacity constrained resources.

• Constrained supply planning applies capacity constraints in the following order:
  • Prebuild in earlier time buckets
  • Offload to an alternate resource
  • Overload capacity

• Supply orders can use resource capacity in any planning time bucket within their lead time:
  • If the lead time is larger than the required resource usage, the capacity is used up in earlier time buckets first, and then in later time buckets.
  • The supply due date will still be planned as late as possible to meet the demand on time.

• Resource capacity constraints will impact order sizing for items without order modifiers.
  • Orders that use resources that are not bottleneck resources won't take capacity constraints into account during order sizing.
  • These orders will be sized based on demand and will overload capacity within lead time.

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training is available at Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Simulate Supply Chain Changes

When planning, you need to be able to make changes to planning assumptions, such as a change in resource capacity, and see the impact on the overall plan in the shortest time possible.

You can now quickly evaluate the impact of the change that you make in a local context while avoiding having to rerun the entire plan. For example, you can quickly add a planned work order and see if there is enough on-hand material to build it immediately. If you are satisfied with the results, you can move on to layer other changes that you want to make. Use this approach to avoid having to replan the entire supply chain which can potentially take a long time. Instead, a quick test to ensure that the change will work as desired is all that is required. You can make the following types of quick simulations:

• Change demand date and quantity, or add a new demand
• Change supply date and quantity, or add a new supply
• Change supply fulfillment process for existing supply order
• Change resource capacity
• Change supplier capacity
• Move in or move out a resource requirement
• Offload to an alternate resource
• Offload to a substitute component.

After making the changes and invoking the Recalculate plan action, you immediately see the effect of these changes on key relevant metrics, such as projected available balance of affected items. You don't have to wait for the results of a full replan.

Here are some details for you to know about the Recalculate action and the Run Plan action:

• Recalculate Action
  • Is a near real time process
  • Performs a local recalculation of plan output
  • Recalculates a subset of planning measures and order attributes
  • Doesn't recalculate pegging and exception messages
  • Doesn't generate new supplies in response to demand increase

• Run Plan Action (without a fresh snapshot)
  • Is a batch process
  • Fully realigns the plan output in response to the user changes
  • Recalculates all planning measures and order attributes
  • Recalculates pegging and exception messages
  • Generates new supplies in response to demand increase

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are details about some actions you can take and how they affect the plan:

• Reschedule a resource activity using the Gantt Chart
  • If a resource activity is moved in our moved out by a certain number of days, the parent supply is assumed to also have been moved in or out by the same number of days.
  • Based on this assumption, the same recalculation logic that is applied to the user action of moving a supply is also applied in this case.

• Choose an alternate resource for a resource requirement
  • The original resource requirement is updated with the new resource.
  • The resource hours for the newly selected resource are calculated based on work definition specifications.
  • The resource hours calculated are equally apportioned across the time buckets that are included in the make span of the original resource requirement. Note: A simplifying assumption is made that both the old and the new source have approximately the same processing rates.
  • Resource related planning measures such as resource requirements, resource utilization percentage are updated for both the old and the new resource.

• Choose a substitute component for a planned order
  • The dependent demand for the original component is updated to have a quantity of 0.
  • A new dependent demand is inserted for the substitute component.
  • The supply, demand and projected available balance measures for the old and the new component are updated.

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Plan for Safety Stock

A key component of your planning for unanticipated demand is to ensure it can be fulfilled using safety stock. You can use all of the following safety stock methods in the constrained plan mode:

• Days of Cover
• User-Specified Safety Stock Level
• User-Specified Time Phased Safety Stock Level
• Calculated Safety Stock Levels Based on Forecast Error

When in the constraint-based planning mode, the supply planning process will fulfill safety stock demand as long as it does not violate constraints. If there isn't enough material or resource capacity to build to safety stock demand, then the supply to meet safety stock demand is shifted out in time until there is enough capacity. Days of cover based safety stock levels are calculated in the absence of any constraints. Then those calculated levels are applied as a target when the plan is run with the constraints turned on. This provides greater transparency to you regarding how safety stock levels were calculated for items with days-of-cover based safety stock.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

For the Safety Stock Planning Method you select from four choices when you're planning in the Constrained Supply Plan mode.

• Do not plan safety stock
• User-specified values for all items
• Statistical safety stock for end Items, none for all others
• Statistical for end items, user-specified for all others

You can use new measures to facilitate calculation of days of cover safety stock in a constrained supply plan.

• Unconstrained Dependent Demand
• Unconstrained Average Daily Demand

Consider these details regarding safety stock smoothing in a constrained supply plan with telescoping buckets.

• The safety stock smoothing interval is interpreted as calendar days.
• For larger buckets, such as weeks or periods, the safety stock value of the last day of the bucket is used as the safety stock for the entire bucket.
• No smoothening is performed whenever an interval is less than a bucket size.
• If the safety stock smoothing interval is more than a bucket, then the smoothing is performed across buckets.

Key Resources

• The Plan for Safety Stock readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Evaluate Exceptions

As a planner, you typically evaluate a plan and prioritize the manual changes to be done based on the exceptions generated from a plan. A constrained supply plan generates the following types of exceptions that help you understand the decisions incorporated in the automated plan run:

• Order Sourced from Alternate Facility
• Order Sourced from Alternate Supplier
• Planned Order Uses Substitute Component
• Planned Order Uses Alternate Resource
• Planned Order Uses Alternate Work Definition

In addition to these new exceptions, you can also use the following types of exceptions that are also generated in an unconstrained plan run:

• Resources Overloaded
• Supplier Capacity Overloaded
• Orders with Insufficient Lead Time
• Demand at Risk Due to Resource Shortage
• Demand at Risk Due to Supplier Capacity Shortage
• Demand at Risk Due to Insufficient Lead Time
• Late Supply Pegged to Forecast
• Late Supply Pegged to Sales Order

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Plan Considering Process Manufacturing Work Definitions

Process manufacturing environments are characterized by a set of unique planning challenges. These challenges include products, co-products, and by-products that are generated at various steps in the manufacturing process, not all of which are at the end of the process. When using Oracle Manufacturing Cloud, you can now specify a work definition that captures the batch quantity and the manufacturing process. You can also specify the work definition to take into account the quantities and operations at which products, by-products, and co-products are generated, in addition to the ingredients required for the manufacturing. When you use Oracle Supply Planning Cloud, these work definitions are honored when generating a plan. Additionally, you can analyze the plan in the context of the co-products and by-products generated.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• A given manufacturing plant can be used to support production needs for both the process manufacturing method and the discrete manufacturing method.
• The unique criteria for work definition selection by supply planning is based on the primary output item, work definition name, and highest production priority.
• At any given point in time, an output item can be associated to one and only one operation, In other words, the same product cannot be completed from multiple operations.
• A work definition operation can complete more than one output item.
• Output of one operation can't be input in another operation.
• You aren't required to attach any output product at the last operation. The primary product can be produced prior to the last operation. 
• The following new measures are added to support process manufacturing:
  • Planned Order Co-Product Supply
  • Work Order Co-Product Supply
  • Planned Order By-Product Supply
  • Work Order By-Product Supply

Key Resources

• The Plan Considering Process Manufacturing Work Definitions readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Respect Reservations

In some situations, such as a high priority order, you may want to reserve supplies to the associated sales order or transfer order so that it can be fulfilled consistently without people making local decisions that impact the ability to fulfill this order on time. When you use Oracle Supply Planning Cloud in the constrained planning mode, you can ensure that any reservations of either on-hand or on-order supplies to sales orders are honored and the supply treated as firm. This means there will be no recommendations to pull-in or push-out supply when there is a change in the sales order schedule date. This approach is different from when you use unconstrained supply plans where there can be recommendations to push out or pull in supplies that are reserved to sales orders if those supplies are not firm.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• All reserved supplies are considered firm by the planning process.
• When the reserved supply exists within the lead time, the reservation is maintained and lead time constrained exception is raised.
• If the reserved quantity causes resources or supply capacity overloads, then Supply Planning overloads the respective resource or supplier capacity and raises an overload exception.
• If a supply is partially reserved for a demand, then the rest of the supply is eligible to be pegged to other demands.
• If a demand is met only partially with reserved supplies, then other unreserved supplies, existing or planned, are used to meet the rest of the demand.
• The Reserved Quantity field in the Supplies and Demands UI displays the total reserved quantity for a supply or a demand. This field is not editable.
• Regarding Reservations to Expired Lots: Supply Planning respects a demand reservation to a lot without regard to the lot expiration date.
• Regarding Reservations and Safety Stock: Reserved supplies and demands are used in the calculation of projected available balance (PAB).
  • Reserved supplies are not used to meet safety stock requirements.

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Prevent Creation of Planned Orders for End-of-Life Items

In some environments, it may be necessary for you to prevent creation of planned orders for a subassembly or a component, and instead generate the planned orders on the substitute after using up the on-hand and on-order inventory of the primary. You typically encounter this scenario when the primary component is designated at the end of its life. In this update, you can use the Create Supply item attribute to prevent creation of new supply for an item. Using this attribute helps you manage scenarios such as end-of-life or phasing out of components. The Create Supply indicator also applies to end items. If set to No for an end item, then all on-hand inventory and on-order inventory will be used up to satisfy demands. All remaining demands for the end item will be marked as unmet demands.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

To use this feature, collaborate with whoever manages your product information to ensure that the Create Supply attribute for an item organization is set to No for the items you don't want to create new supplies for. This attribute is set up in the Product Information Management work area.

Alternatively, you can set the Create Supply attribute in an item simulation set in Supply Planning.

Key Resources

• The Prevent Creation of Planned Orders for End-of-Life Items readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Diagnose Planning Issues Using Calculated Order Attributes and Gantt Charts

Use milestones on an order that are calculated as part of a plan run, such as Earliest Start Date, and explanatory attributes, such as a Shared Supply, to diagnose planning issues and confirm the accuracy of the plan output. Use a Gantt chart to visualize and change the plan for a specific order in context of these attributes.

Oracle Supply Planning Cloud makes decisions on timing of orders based on considerations, such as capacity and lead time. It is important for you to be able to visualize the time span of orders in relation to information, such as the earliest start and completion dates, firm status, and other order-level diagnostic attributes. With this update, you have a new page available to visualize the resource activities and orders. Using a Gantt chart, you can visualize the timing of supplies that will be manufactured and sourced to support the demand. Additionally, you can visualize how orders consume capacity on a resource. You can access the chart from the Build Plan, Resource Plan, Material Plan, and Supplies and Demand UIs. You can interactively work in these UIs to reschedule orders. Additionally, you can use various calculated attributes to visualize the milestones, such as material availability, in the context of a resource schedule. You can then manipulate the schedules in the context of actual constraints. The key attributes that are calculated to aid you in plan visualization and diagnosis are the following:

• Milestones: Earliest Start Date, Material Available Date, Consumption Start Date, Need-by Date
• Explanatory Order Attributes: Contributes to Overload, Contributes to Lateness, Shared Supply, Uses Order Modifier, Firm, Pegged-to Firm

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named: Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described in this document.

Here are a couple of points to keep in mind:

• Supply bars in the Gantt chart span from the suggested start date to the suggested due date of the supply.
  • If both suggested start and due dates are the same, then the supply bar appears as a thin line.

• Resource requirement bars span from the bucket start date of the planning time bucket that contains the start date of the resource requirement to the bucket end date of the planning time bucket that contains the end date of the resource requirement.

Some points to note about moving bars in the Gantt chart:

• You can use the Move In and Move Out options in the toolbar or the drag and drop action.
• You can't move a bar to another row.
• The end date of the supply bar always spans to the last working day of the planning time bucket to which is moved.
• If you attempt to move a bar to a nonworking day within the daily bucket portion of the plan horizon, then you will be asked if you want to move it to the previous working day.
• Time durations of bars remain the same as you move them across planning time buckets. A replan or recalculate action may change the durations.

Here are a couple of points about opening the Gantt chart:

• You cannot open the Gantt chart using the Open action in the plan toolbar. The Gantt chart can only be opened in context using a drill from another page.
• The Gantt chart always opens in a different pane than the pane from which it is invoked.

Key Resources

• The Create and Manage a Constrained Supply Plan readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to any of the following job roles will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

Plan for Multiple Fulfillment Strategies

Your business may use a variety of fulfillment strategies, such as contract manufacturing, drop shipment, and back-to-back order flows, based on customer-specific or order-specific situations. While varying fulfillment strategies can deliver flexibility and cost advantages, it further complicates planning. To implement these strategies more effectively, constraint-based planning enables you to:

• Plan for contract manufacturing. Plan outsourced manufacturing locations as if they were in-house manufacturing plants. Plan for supply, taking work-in-process and on-hand inventory at the contract manufacturer into account so customer service levels remain high. Plan for the components you supply to the contract manufacturer. Automatically create the documentation that is required to manufacture the product at the contract manufacturer when you release the planned supply orders.

• Plan for drop shipments. Consume drop-shipped orders from the forecast, and honor supply reservations for them. Plan the transit time between the supplier and customer site, taking the supplier, supplier shipping, carrier, and customer receiving calendars into account.

• Plan back-to-back orders. Consume the back-to-back orders from forecasts, and honor supply reservations for them. Plan the transit time between the supplier and the receiving organization, taking the supplier, carrier, receiving organization, and customer calendars into account.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described here.

Key Resources

• The Plan for Multiple Fulfillment Strategies readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to the following job role will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)

View Order Recommendations

You can now easily access recommendations to cancel, reschedule in, or reschedule out existing supply orders in a constrained supply plan. The recommendations include:

• Orders to be canceled
• Orders to be rescheduled in
• Orders to rescheduled out

These exceptions were already previously available in unconstrained supply plans .

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Supply Chain Planning

Tips And Considerations

When you opt in to use this feature, you must opt in to the feature named Constraint-Based Planning. Opting in to the Constraint-Based Planning feature enables all of the Constraint-Based Planning features described here.

For a plan to generate these three exceptions in a constrained plan, the exception set associated with the plan must include these exceptions.

Key Resources

• The View Order Recommendations readiness training available on Oracle Cloud Readiness for Supply Chain Planning.

Role Information

Users assigned to the following job role will automatically be able to use this feature and no special privileges are required:

• Supply Chain Planner (ORA_MSC_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PLANNER)