Facilities (Supply Chain Structure)
Fluentis DDMRP is able to manage not only a factory but an entire supply chain composed of a factory and various hubs and distribution centers.
This table represents the logistics structure, that is, the supply chain, on which Fluentis DDMRP must operate.
In Fluentis, we refer to each node of the supply chain as a "Facility," and this is the table of Facilities.
A hierarchical structure is considered as described below.
Distribution Centers
These are the logistical units that serve end customers directly through the stocks they hold.
They are geographically positioned in appropriate locations in order to reduce transportation time to end customers.
Each distribution center is supplied by an intermediate Hub or directly from the factory.
Hub
These are logistical units that supply distribution centers.
They are geographically positioned in appropriate locations to reduce transportation time to distribution centers.
Hubs allow for a high service level to end customers while reducing the overall inventory level in the distribution network.
Hubs are supplied by the factory or, in very extensive networks, by other Hubs.
Factory
Only one factory is considered in the logistics structure.
This supplies the Hubs and/or distribution centers.
Thus, there is a customer-supplier relationship between the units of the logistics structure (each logistics unit must be coded as both a customer and a supplier).
The distribution centers are customers and not suppliers in the logistics structure, the Hubs are both customers (of the factory or other hubs) and suppliers (of the distribution centers or other hubs), the factory has as customers the distribution centers or the Hubs and has no supplying logistics unit.
The fields that define a logistics unit are as follows:
Warehouse
This is the warehouse code associated with the logistics unit.
Except for the factory, each logistics unit is uniquely identified by the associated warehouse (a choice made to increase compatibility with external applications).
Multiple warehouses can be associated with the factory, and these will be the only ones considered by the DDMRP system for factory buffer items, so other warehouses used in the factory that are not present in this table should not contain DDMRP buffers as they would be ignored by the NFP calculation.
The warehouses in this table that are not marked as factories will be ignored by the MRP procedure, as they are merchandise distribution warehouses and not production, and will need to be planned individually through the calculation of net flow position (NFP), also from the MRP execution menu.
In Fluentis DDMRP, the logistics unit Factory will be referred to by an empty warehouse code, precisely because it is the only logistics unit to which multiple warehouses can be associated, thus losing the relationship of uniqueness between warehouse and logistics unit.
Client
It uniquely identifies the logistics unit just like the warehouse code, therefore every logistics unit must have a customer account associated with it.
If it is a supplier of another logistics unit, it must also have an associated supplier account.
The same customer code cannot therefore be associated with multiple warehouses (except for the factory), just as the same warehouse code cannot be associated with multiple customer codes.
Supplier
Its value identifies the logistics unit that will supply the goods to the one indicated by the warehouse code and/or customer code of the record.
Only for records associated with the factory (Factory flag selected), this field is not editable and remains empty since the factory cannot be supplied by another logistics unit.
A supplier can only be a logistics unit already entered in this table (it is not possible to generically select a supplier from the supplier list).
The system verifies the customer code associated with the supplier code and then searches for this customer code in the customer field of various records of the Facilities table, thus a supplying logistics unit must have both a customer code and a supplier code associated.
This implies that the insertion in this table must start from the lowest layer, that is, from the factory, and then rise to any Hubs, and finally to the distribution centers, therefore the insertion occurs by decreasing priority levels.
It is not mandatory for all items in a logistics unit to be supplied by the unit indicated as a supplier.
This remains the default supplier that will be used in the creation of planned internal orders generated by the planning system and for the calculation of decoupled lead time (DLT).
In the parameters table of DDMRP for items, exceptions can be defined by indicating another logistics unit or a generic external supplier to the logistics structure and related transport time.
Supplier warehouse
This is the warehouse code associated with the supplier logistics unit of the selected record; this value allows for quick searches in this table via the Warehouse field.
If the supplier is the factory, this field will be empty since the factory is the only logistics unit to which it is possible to associate more than one warehouse.
Factory
This is a flag that indicates that the warehouse of the record refers to the factory (in this case, the supplier is empty).
For the factory, multiple records are possible, one for each warehouse that the planning system must consider.
After entering the first warehouse with the Factory flag active, for the subsequent ones, it will be checked that the customer code is the same as the records with the active factory flag because, of course, the factory will always be associated with only one customer code (and one supplier code).
Planning priority
This is a value greater than or equal to 0 and not exceeding 100.
Records associated with the factory have a value of 100 by Fluentis convention, while other logistics units have a lower value.
This element serves to indicate to the planning system which order to follow in the calculation process, in fact, logistics units with a lower value will be planned first, then proceeding to higher values and thus planning the factory last, respecting the customer-supplier chain among logistics units, just as is done in the case of a bill of materials starting from the top and subsequently proceeding to the lower levels.
This order is necessary because in order to know the needs of a logistics unit, the needs of its customer units must first be planned.
Each customer record must have a priority level lower than that of its supplying unit.
Lead time
This is the time required to transport goods from the supplying logistics unit and is expressed in days.
Shipping warehouse template
This is the warehouse reason that will be used to fulfill an internal order, that is, to withdraw the goods from this facility and ship them to the facility that requested it and must be associated with the warehouse to be selectable in the record insertion phase.
Receiving warehouse template
This is the warehouse reason that will be used to load goods following an internal order, that is, to deposit the goods in this facility coming from the facility that supplied it and must be associated with the warehouse to be selectable in the record insertion phase.