Lead Time Utility

HelpID: 497022137, 497022138

Overview

The Lead Times Utility calculates the Manufacturing Fixed and Variable Lead Times shown on the Item Resource Planning window. The WilloWare utility has several important improvements over the similar utility provided in the Manufacturing Module:

• It is significantly faster because it only updates Item-Site records where the lead times have changed (the MFG utility updates all records even if there is no change). Also, the WilloWare utility run completely in SQL while the MFG utility primarily is dexterity.
• It supports assigning a Routing to each Item-Site record which it uses to perform Item-Site specific updates (the MFG utility updates all Item-Sites to the same value using the Primary Routing).
• It generates a report after the utility runs shows the before and after values on the records it updated (the MFG utility provides no feedback).
• It tracks all changes (before and after values) in a history table along with the Date and User (the MFG utility just performs the mass update).
• It correctly handles Quantity Next Start and Parallel Sequences (the MFG utility has bugs in how it handles routings that use either or both of those features).

Setup

Navigation: Tools >> Setup >> Manufacturing >> MFG PowerPack Setup

Mark the box next to “Lead Time Utility”, then click DONE.

All users must re-start GP to activate this feature.

Using Lead Time Utility

Navigation: Tools >> Utilities >> Manufacturing >> Lead Time Utility

The Lead Times Utility can update one item, all items, or specific item-sites using a Lead Time Batch. Regardless of the update method, it will only update an Item-Site where the Replenishment Method is not BUY (MAKE or MAKE/BUY records are updated). It does not explode the BOM/Routing to recalculate the TOTAL lead time to make the part, it is looking only at the routing for made item. Look at WilloWare’s Lead Time Inquiry to calculate a complete lead time from top-to-bottom.

The lead time calculation is described below.

ITEM ENGINEERING: Average Quantity.  If the field has a value other than zero it uses that value, otherwise it uses 1.  If you calculate all items the utility runs through all records in the Item Engineering table, which means if you have incomplete setup (i.e a missing record in Item Engineering) the item will not be updated by the utility.

• AvgQty = Average Quantity

ROUTING: It gets the routing sequences for the item’s Primary Routing.  See note at the end about parallel routing sequences.

• QNS = Qty Next Start
• PNS = Percent Next Start
• QT = Queue Time
• ST = Setup Time
• CT = Cycle Time
• MT = Move Time

WORK CENTER: It gets the Work Center record using the Work Center ID and the first record with an Effective Date <= Current Date.

• HPS = Hours Per Shift
• NS = Number of Shifts

THE CALCULATIONS

• PctComplete = 1
• IF: QNS > 0 THEN PctComplete = QNS/AVGQty
• ELSE IF: PNS > 0 and PNS < 1000.0 THEN PctComplete = PNS/1000.0
• Note that dividing by 1000 is correct, it has to do with how GP stores the data

If QNS and PNS are zero, PctComplete stays 1. PctComplete is used later in the calculations below.

• WCHours = HPS * NS
• SetupAndQueue = (QT + ST) / WCHours
• MoveAndCycle = (CT + MT) / WCHours
• VARLeadTimeLine = MoveAndCycle * PctComplete
• FixedLeadTime = FixedLeadTime + SetupAndQueue, rounded UP to 2 decimals
• VariableLeadTime = VariableLeadTime + VarLeadTimeLine, rounded UP to 4 decimals

The calculations above are repeated for each routing sequence and the last two values (FixedLeadTime and VariableLeadTime) accumulate the total as each routing sequence is processed.  These values are used to update the two lead time fields in Item Quantities Maintenance.  All Item-Site combinations where the Replenishment Method is not BUY will be updated.

Parallel Routing Sequences: When there are parallel routing sequences the update starts with the first sequence and then compares it to each subsequent sequence. If a subsequent sequence has a larger value for Fixed or Variable lead time it keeps that value and continues looking at later sequences. The general idea is that it keeps the longest times of any of the sequences because the longest time in the set of parallel sequences is what dictates the total time for the set.

Lead Time Batches

Navigation: Tools >> Utilities >> Manufacturing >> Lead Time Batch

A Lead Time Batch can be used to perform a more precise update to specific item-site combinations using specific routings. The window is populated by importing data from Excel.

To create a new Lead Time Batch, enter a Batch ID and Description, then click EXCEL IMPORT.

The spreadsheet must have three columns with the first row being column headers:

• A – Item Number
• B – Site
• C – Routing Name

Select the excel file then click the EXCEL IMPORT button. The Lead Time Batch window will display a status message at the bottom of the window as it reads the file and show DONE when the process is complete. The scrolling window will fill with the imported data:

No errors will be reported. The import will bring in all records from the spreadsheet and then remove any record that has invalid data. It will perform the following validations:

• No field is blank (Item, Site and Routing must all be present)
• Item Numbers exist in the Item Master (IV00101)
• Site IDs exist in Location Code Master (IV40700)
• Item-Site combinations exists in the Item Quantities Master (IV00102)
• Routings exist in the Routing Header (RT010001)

If something does not appear in the window after the import, check the excel spreadsheet to ensure the data is correct.

 

Lead Time Change History

Changes to Lead Times are tracked in a history table:

• wLTHx (W4970LTHx)

Each time the utility runs, if there are changes to the lead items on an Item-Site those changes are recorded in the wLTHx table.  If tracks the before and after values along with the Date and User ID who made the changes.

 

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