Planning of seasonal products using SNP Optimiser

[Former Member]

I am using APO V5.1.

I would like to plan 'seasonal' products using the SNP Optimiser.

I tried the following approach, for a given product where there is regular weekly demand at a DC which is serviced by a factory:

- make the transport lane between factory and DC only available during the 'seasonal windows' (eg summer 2013, summer 2014, summer 2015)

- SNP PDS is available all the time

- resource at factory is available all the time

But the optimiser in fact is generating planned orders in summer 2013 to meet demands across the whole horizon of next 2 years, rather than generating planned orders 'per season'.

Is this expected behaviour?

If so, how else could the master data be set up to allow the optimiser to plan correctly, per season?

Thanks for any advice here...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob

Check the holding cost of the product at the factory. The reason why optimizer is creating all the planned orders in 2013 is because there is no holding cost maintained at the factory and so there is no reason for the optimizer to create the orders in 2014 and 2015.

Once you maintain the cost optimizer will create orders in 2014 and 2015.

Mitesh