Block Planning (cross location scenario)

[Former Member]

Hi experts,

we are going to implemet block planning in a steel industry (rolling mill resources), but in a complex scenario.

We have 19 rolling mill in 15 different plants, the products and classification (we are using variant configuration) is the same, but the blocks definition is different per rolling mill, for example product A is in block XX for rolling mill 1 in block YY for rolling mill 2 and block ZZ for rolling mill 3.

As the blocks definitions is per class, how can we define differents blocks for the same product dependent from resource?

I thought in 2 different solutions:

1) since the product classification is in the MRP3 (kmat) I can put a characteristic to define the plant and in the block basis definiftion use also the characteristic plant to define the blocks.

But in this case when I have 2 rolling mills inside the same plant the classification of the product is only one.

2) Use class 018 to classify the routing operations, but in this case the master data creation/maintenance will increase substantially.

Is there any other solution I can try?

thanks in advance

Thiago Cyrillo

[frank_horlacher · Accepted solution]

Hello Thiago,

i do not understand your problem.

Can you give an example?

I will try to understand your requirement and describe a possible solution.

Let's assume you have 2 rolling mills with different campaigns (blocks) for the diameter of long products. So diameter is the characteristic which detemines the campaign. In the APO you would define a certain diameter as block requirement.

You have for example 3 block basis definitions. 10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm.

Now you define block reference cycles 1 and 2.

The first reference cycle has the following sequence: 1 day 10 mm 1 day 20 mm and 1 day 30 mm

The second reference cycle has a different sequence and durations: 3 days 20 mm 5 days 10 mm and 2 days 30 mm.

Now you create the blocks with the reference cycles on the resources.

On rolling mill 1 you use the reference cycle 1 for the next 12 weeks.

On rolling mill 2 you use the reference cycle 2 for the next 15 weeks.

With the reference cycles you can create different campaign schedules on different resources using the same block definitions. A product variant with diameter 20 mm can be scheduled on rolling mill 1 or 2 but the blocks determine when.

Hope I could help.

Frank

Edited by: Frank Horlacher on Jul 7, 2010 11:57 AM

Edited by: Frank Horlacher on Jul 7, 2010 11:58 AM

Edited by: Frank Horlacher on Jul 7, 2010 11:58 AM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Frank,

thanks for the answer.

The problem here is that the rolling mill is different and criteria to create the blocks is different also for example:

Rolling Mill 1: block A 1 - 5mm; block B 6 - 10mm; block C 10 - 20mm

Rolling Mill 2: block A 1 - 7mm; block B 8 - 15mm; block C 15 - 20mm

One product with 6mm can be in the block B for the rolling mill1 and in the block A for rolling mill 2.

The problem is that the block basis definition is related to the class, and we use variant configuration, and all products have the same class.

I think that I will have to use the class 018 to configure the operation. Do you know any other solution?

thanks in advance

Thiago Cyrillo

[frank_horlacher · Accepted solution]

Hi Thiago,

I still do not get the problem. Why do you need to name the blocks with different requirements with the same letter for example block A

on Rolling Mill 1: block A 1 - 5mm

Rolling Mill 2: block A 1 - 7mm

why don't you just call the blocks A1 and A2.

Or is there another addtional requirement?

Regards

Frank

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Frank,

I realy made a confusion here.

We don't need to use the same name to the blocks.

We can use different names and predefined cycles for each rolling mill as you say.

Thanks for the help

Thiago Cyrillo